ten years after their kidnapping by Boko Haram, the difficult reintegration of Chibok high school girls

In April 2014, 276 high school girls were kidnapped from their school in northeast Nigeria by the armed group Boko Haram.

Ten years later, it is still time for reconstruction for young Nigerian women who have been sequestered for many years. There were 276 high school students, most of them Christians, kidnapped on the night of April 14 to 15, 2014 from their public boarding school in Chibok by the armed group Boko Haram. These kidnappings created the large-scale #BringBackOurGirls movement.

Over the years, many have managed to free themselves, but 82 Chibok high school girls are still missing, according to the latest count from Amnesty International.

For those who managed to escape, they had to go through several months of nutritional and psychological care, as well as a deradicalization program. Their reintegration into normal life is very difficult for these young women deprived of their youth and yet victims of stigma. Franceinfo collected the testimonies of two former hostages, who have become young mothers, today they are continuing their studies and their reconstruction.

Discrimination

Since her daughter Patience joined her in Yola, in eastern Nigeria, Amina Nkeki has found sleep again.
Patience was born to a father believed to be a Boko Haram fighter. And every time Amina received a phone call from her family back in Chibok, it was to hear about the ordeal Patience experienced at school. “She came back crying, says his mother Amina, people called him, ‘child of Boko Haram’. It’s unfair that she has to go through this. I told him it wasn’t true and not to worry about it.” Patience’s schooling is now going smoothly.

On the other hand, Amina still feels stigmatized. With her status as a former Boko Haram hostage, the young mother benefits from support to study at university, where she goes reluctantly. “When we have tutorials, we often don’t know how to start or understand the questionexplains Amina. When we ask them, some listen to us, but others, when they learn that we are the daughters of Chibok, turn their faces and leave.”

Not all survivors are accompanied

Jummai Mutah deplores this discrimination that she also experiences. But the young woman considers herself lucky despite everything. According to her, many of her comrades from Chibok recently freed from Boko Haram are not properly accompanied. “Before returning to normal life, we were followed by psychologists. They helped us verbalize things from our captivity that haunted us at that time. These girls are isolated in a center in Maiduguri [au nord-est du Nigeria, non loin de Chibok], they have no one to encourage them to forget what happened. It’s impossible for them to return to their state of mind before captivity.” Young mothers are in great distress, after seven to eight years of captivity, and completely helpless to raise their children born during their confinement.