13 captives died, 12 children remain with terrorists in Kwara forest

AT least 13 people died in captivity while 12 children remained with terrorists after 176 women and children abducted from Woro and Nuku communities in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State were rescued following nearly six months in the forest.

The Kwara State Government disclosed this on Friday while formally receiving the survivors, who were freed on Wednesday after spending months in captivity following the February 3 attack.

The government said 14 rescued victims, including three women who gave birth while in captivity, were receiving treatment at a general hospital in Ilorin as of Friday.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq commiserated with the families of those who died in captivity and thanked President Bola Tinubu and the military hierarchy for their roles in the rescue operation. The governor also visited the hospital where the rescued victims were receiving treatment.

The survivors who spoke with journalists, described months of severe hunger, exposure to heavy rainfall and inadequate shelter, while several pregnant women were forced to give birth without proper medical care in captivity.

One of the rescued victims, Amirah Salihu, a nurse and daughter of the chief of Woro, Umar Salihu, in an interview with journalist, said she helped 10 pregnant women deliver their babies with her bare hands because there were no gloves or medical equipment available.

“They asked of nurse, ‘Is there any nurse with us?’ …I just used to help pregnant women do delivery. I helped like 10 women for the delivery, without gloves. I used my hands to help them,” she recalled.

Salihu said the captives survived on poorly prepared food, sometimes consisting only of guinea corn, salt and seasoning.

“The kind of food that they were giving us was bad. The day that we got there, they just dropped guinea corn for us with salt and Maggi. Every day after, they gave us one bag of corn without oil, pepper, nothing. There was a day that they didn’t even give us Maggi again, just salt.

She also described the appalling conditions under which the captives slept, saying they were sometimes forced to stay close to or inside a river despite heavy rainfall.

“And they kept us inside river. The place that we sleep is inside river. And rain always used to fall, sometimes. If we set fire, they asked us to put off the fire,” she said.

Salihu said that her father had resisted the terrorists’ attempts to enter the community and arranged for soldiers to protect the village, but the attackers returned after the soldiers had left.

“They just came to our house that day, suddenly, and people came to our house. They even killed my brothers. My senior brother and my junior brother. They said it’s because of my dad did not allow them to come to our village. They always said that they were working for Allah; that they wanted us to work with what Allah said. That’s the reason they entered our village, killed everybody,” Salihu said.

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She, however, said there was no case of rape or sexual assault while their ordeal lasted.

Another survivor, Nafisat Abdulfatai, said 13 captives died during the period, while 12 children were left behind after the terrorists threatened that anyone who attempted to escape would be enslaved.

“Thirteen people died among us during our time in captivity. Twelve children are still with the terrorists. They were not released with us because the abductors had threatened that those who tried to leave would become slaves,” Abdulfatai said.

She said two of the children were specifically forced to remain because the terrorists considered them old enough.

“Those children were compelled to remain. We pray that God will also bring them back safely,” she added.

She added that they were initially forced to sleep in the open forest before the terrorists erected a makeshift shelter after several children died, noting that the shelter, made with trampoline material, was grossly inadequate for the number of people being held.

“We slept under that temporary structure like animals. Whenever it rained, some people had to sleep on top of others because there was no space. When there was no rain, we preferred to sleep under the trees beside the river. That was where we slept, woke up every morning and spent our days,” she explained.

According to Abdulfatai, between six and seven women lost their babies, while others were able to return with their newborns. She said the experience also left several survivors seriously ill.

The ICIR reported that heavily armed terrorists, operating in large numbers and riding motorcycles, invaded the communities, carried out a prolonged attack that killed residents. They set homes, shops and the traditional ruler’s palace ablaze before whisking women and children into the forest.

The attack on Woro drew national attention after residents alleged that the terrorists operated in the community for nearly 10 hours before security operatives arrived.

The village head, Umar Salihu, said the attackers invaded the community at about 5 p.m. and operated until around 3 a.m. the following day. They had fled with their captives before soldiers reached the area. He also blamed the community’s vulnerability on the earlier withdrawal of military personnel stationed there after their base came under attack.

Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.