How I Fled From Boko Haram --Victim Recounts

It's been 10 months since over 200 Chibok girls were kidnapped, after
fleeing from their assault, an 18-year-old Nigerian girl recounted her
escape to FRANCE 24 and she also criticized the government's failure
to tackle the threats of reprisal against her family.

On 14th of April 2014, in the dead of the night, Saa, whose real name
has been withheld for security reasons was sleeping in the Chibok
secondary school hostel when a series of gunshots woke her up;

"We came out of our rooms wondering what to do. The Boko Haram people
came to the school and the hostel where we were living and they asked
us to stay together."

The girls were gathered and made to board a truck, Saa recounted;

"They said they were going to kill us if we didn't do what they
wanted. We were very afraid."

The insurgents had lined up a number of vehicles to transport the
girls and Saa's truck was in the middle. The vehicles took off towards
the Sambisa forest. It was at this point that she made a powerful
decision that changed her life;

"Some of us decided to jump off the truck," she explained. "Two girls
jumped and I decided to jump too. I told my friend, 'I'd rather die
and my parents will have my coffin than go with the Boko Haram because
I don't know where I'm going.'"

Saa jumped off the truck and her friend immediately joined her.

Sadly, Saa's friend got an injury in her leg while jumping, so the two
terrified teenagers spent the night hiding in the forest before Saa
could set off the next day to seek help.

Help came in the form of a shepherd who initially refused to help the
teenager, but later yielded. He pushed her injured friend on his
bicycle and together they made their way to a nearby village.

Saa and her friend were just lucky as nothing has been heard of the of
the kidnapped girls despite the huge international outcry centered
around the "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign, which drew political
leaders, celebrities and activists from across the world.

Saa reveled this to FRANCE 24 from Geneva, where she is attending a
human rights summit; she explained that she fled Nigeria for the US,
where she is currently attending secondary school.

"The Boko Haram said if we escaped, they would kill us and our
families," said Saa, wearing dark glasses to protect her identity
since she fears reprisals against her family.

Now that elections are months away, Saa says attention has been driven
away from the captured girls;

The Nigerian government has "already forgotten" about the kidnapped
girls' plight. Now, people are not even talking about the Chibok girls
anymore. They have forgotten about them."
--DailyTimes