Over 200 girls abducted in Chibok in April 2014 are
being held in Gwoza town in Borno State, a woman
who was recently released by Boko Haram has told
the International Centre for Investigative Reporting
(ICIR).
She had been held in the same location as the
abducted Chibok girls.
The 56-year-old woman, Mbutu Papka, who was
kidnapped in July, 2014 and held by the insurgents for
eight months in two locations, said confidently that the
abducted girls were being kept under very tight
security in a house in Gwoza.
Papka said nobody is allowed near the fenced building
where the abducted girls are being held under 24-hour
security.
Even the heavily armed guards who keep watch over
the girls round the clock, it was learnt, are only
allowed to go into the house to deliver food, water and
other supplies to them.
The woman was seized along with others when Boko
Haram attacked Gwoza on July 4, 2014 and taken to
Mdita, a remote village near the notorious Sambisa
Forest, bordering Askira Uba, Damboa and Gwoza.
The abductees, who included many children, according
to Papka, were kept in Mdita for five months before
being transferred to Gwoza, where they were held for
three months before they were finally released on
March 15..
It was while in Gwoza that she learnt that the Chibok
Girls, whose abduction has attracted global attention,
were being housed in a compound adjacent to where
she and other kidnapped people were kept.
Asked how she knew the girls were there, Papka said
she never saw the Chibok girls, but explained that
people in the area pointed at the heavily guarded flat
and said the girls were inside.
Because access to the house was restricted, she said,
the girls apparently did their own cooking and chores
by themselves.
“In the camp at Gwoza, there were clear demarcations
between where people were kept. The Chibok girls,
other captives and Boko Haram members and their
family members all had their separate areas secured,
though the security in the area where the girls are
kept is visibly different and much tighter,” she said.
Papka explained that the conditions under which the
captives in Gwoza were kept were fairly tolerable and
far better than the first location, as there was water
supply.
She said after they were taken to Gwoza, their living
conditions improved remarkably because the town has
modern facilities, as opposed to the rustic Mdita.
“When we got to Gwoza, things changed because
there were facilities there and the place was 10 times
better than Mdita. We had a normal life in Gwoza,
except the trauma of living in captivity. Whatever we
wanted to eat, they were provided. They would bring
water, firewood, etc., and leave them outside,” she
explained.
“They even provided perfume for anyone who
requested for it,” she added.
According to her, at Mdita, she met other abducted
people including women and children, among whom
were many under the age of seven, all living in terrible
conditions.
“There was a room we used to urinate in and because
of lack of water, the place stank and maggots were
everywhere. We took our baths once daily, if we were
lucky,” she said.
Because of the terrible conditions and absence of
health care facilities in the camp, many people fell
sick and some died.
“There was a Redeemed Christian Church of God
pastor who was killed during the attack on our village,
and his wife was abducted with us. She died at Mdita
due to the condition of the place and the death of her
husband,” she told our reporter.
The pastor’s wife, she explained, had diabetes and,
before her abduction, had been on a special diet which
could not be provided by the insurgents.
Papka said she and the other women were not raped
or assaulted, though she could not speak for the
Chibok girls because nobody was allowed to see or
interact with them.
She also said that the Boko Haram men lived with
their wives and children in the Gwoza camp, but kept
away from others and cooked their own meals.
On March 15, 2015, after three months in Gwoza,
Papka and 10 other older women were taken from the
camp, herded into a vehicle and driven to Izge, a
village, from where she was taken to her own village
on a motorcycle because the road is bad.
“I was asked to pay N8,000 for the motorcycle ride,
which I collected from my family,” she stated.
It was also learnt that a two-year-old boy was given to
Papka when she was released. The boy, who is
reported to be sick and has rashes on his body, has
since been reunited with his family, which is now
seeking financial assistance to take the child to
hospital.
“He was crying uncontrollably, so they (Boko Haram)
handed him over to me as were leaving,” she said.
Gwoza local government area of Borno State, which is
just over 100 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state
capital, is said to be one of the council areas still
wholly in the hands of Boko Haram terrorists.
Gwoza town was first captured by the insurgents in
August last year, following a heavy gun attack by
insurgents who hoisted the sect’s flag and declared it
the headquarters of the group’s Caliphate.
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