The Nigerian Government has revealed that a further 11 of the Chibok women, abducted in 2004 by militant group Boko Haram, have gained their freedom since June.
The announcement says that the women are currently staying at an Interim Care Centre in Maiduguri. The women are accompanied by at least 21 children they have given birth to while in captivity – the women having been made pregnant by their captors.
One of those released, Rejoice Senki, has told Nigerian newspaper The Sun that she was violated constantly while in captivity. She was forcefully married to a fighter named Musa and had given birth to two children in the bush.
She was also forcefully converted to Islam, and said: ‘If you don’t obey whatever they tell you, they will do whatever they like to you.’
The Chibok kidnappings took place in April 2014, when a group of largely Christian schoolgirls were kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram. Among the abductees was schoolgirl Leah Sharibu whose case has been taken up worldwide. She is one of an estimated 96 Chibok abductees that remain unaccounted for.
One parent said she kept washing the clothes of her abducted daughters trusting that one day, they would return to put on their dresses.
