200 Abducted Chibok Girls Held In A Building In Gwoza Town

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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