Some of the former Boko Haram abductees told SaharaReporters on Thursday that they live in poor conditions.
At least 20 ‘Chibok schoolgirls’ who escaped from Boko Haram captivity and their children have been abandoned by the Nigerian government, SaharaReporters learnt on Thursday.
Some of the former Boko Haram abductees told SaharaReporters on Thursday that they live in poor conditions.
According to them, they are currently camped in a building in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
They accused the authorities of abandoning them, thereby neglecting their welfare and education, including those of the children they had while they were held captive by Boko Haram terrorists.
One of them exclusively told SaharaReporters on Thursday that the government does not seem to care about them.
She said, "We're suffering here; we feel neglected and abandoned with our children.
"They give us a total of 15 kg of rice and corn flour, two litres of cooking oil, a sachet of salt and seasoning cubes with N30,000 stipend every month.
"We use the stipend to augment foodstuffs, toiletries and medicine, in case one falls sick.”
"Don't forget that we didn't voluntarily run into the bush to live with terrorists; we were abducted, disengaged from the pursuit of education and traumatized,” another one said.
“Some of us managed to escape by the grace of God, yet it is not any better here because neither we nor the kids we were forced to have while in the terrorists' den are going to school.
"We got into this trouble due to the failure of authorities to secure our schools and the country in general. It’s their failure and not ours.
"Why are they not taking us back to school or at least our children? What kind of a future are they envisaging for us?”
Lamenting that some of those earlier rescued were enrolled in posh universities, one of the former Boko Haram abductees said, "We know for a fact that some of our contemporaries have graduated on government or some other kind of scholarships. I know that even as we speak some are attending a university in Yola, Adamawa State. But we're not going to school, why?”
"Please they should show some empathy, we are fellow human beings with ambitions and aspirations; we want to have a future like every normal person,” she added.