Nigeria's Human Tragedy

"We just have to give praise to God that we are alive, those of us who have survived."
"They took me [captive by Boko Haram] so I can marry one of their commanders. When they realized I was pregnant, they said I was impregnated by an infidel, and we have killed him. Once you deliver, within a week we will marry you to our commander [they said]."
"Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and that we should run away with them. But we said no."
"Then they started stoning us. I held my baby to my stomach and doubled over to protect her."
Lami Musa, 27, Yola, Nigeria

The women and children, survivors of months of captivity by Boko Haram, began speaking of their experiences, released from the war zone that has become the huge area of the Sambisa Forest in Nigeria. Lami Musa was one among the 275 girls, women and children rescued finally by the Nigerian military. Many among them bewildered and traumatized. As Lami Musa cradled her five-day-old baby girl she spoke of her relief to escape a forced marriage to one of the men who killed her husband.

The jihadists had taken her from her village after they had slaughtered the men there, including her husband. She was forced to abandon their three young children five months ago in Lassa Village. She had given birth to the baby the night previous to a mass rescue that had taken place last week in Sambisi Forest. Hers took place several days afterward. They are all now receiving medical care.

Some of the children are severely malnourished

The military claims that it has managed to free almost 700 captives in the past week from Boko Haram, though it remains yet to be clarified whether any among them represent the "Chibok girls", young students whose mass abduction a year ago from their school outraged the world, sparking a global campaign for their freedom. Lami Musa was among the first group of women and girls to be transported over three days to the safety of the Malkohi refugee camp on the outskirts of the capital of northeastern Adamawa state.

Another survivor of the stoning, Salamatu Bulama, 20, spoke of a number of girls and women who were killed; their numbers uncertain. A group of women were fearfully concealed under bushes unseen by soldiers riding in an armoured personnel carrier, which drove right over them. "I think those killed there were about ten", ventured Bulama. Others died from being hit by stray bullets.

And because there were insufficient vehicles to transport all of the captives, some women had to walk that distance to the refugee camp. They were given instructions to walk only in the tire tracks of the convoy to avoid traps that the Boko Haram jihadists had left, mining much of the forest. Some of the women likely strayed, setting off a landmine that killed three, Musa explained.

Salamatu Bulama cried when she spoke of her only son, two years of age, who had died two months earlier, of an illness brought on by malnutrition. "What will I tell my husband!" she wailed once she discovered from other survivors that her husband was alive and in the northern town of Kaduna.

Salamatu Bulama says she was among the among the women stoned by the militants