There was huge relief after one of the missing Chibok girls was found. She is one of the many captives who have been set free from Boko Haram. But those freed face a tough time of re-integrating back into society.
The last few days seem to have been a bag of good and bad news for the Nigerian military. First, the army received a major morale boost after they paraded one of the missing Chibok girls who was found by a vigilante group roaming the vast Sambisa forest.
The news was quickly followed by another girl being freed, alongside many other women and children rescued from Boko Haram’s captivity by Nigerian troops, who are carrying out “Operation Sambisa Crackdown.”
The army then said she was another Chibok girl, but it turned out she was not. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people who for a period of time lived under the shadow of what has been described as the world’s deadliest terrorist group. An unknown number of people, including the more than 200 Chibok girls, are still being held by the Islamists.
This year, a report by the global children agency UNICEF, warned that freed Nigerian women and their children who were under Boko Haram’s control are being rejected by their communities.
The women and girls, who in most cases were raped by Boko Haram militants, forced to marry the fighters or work as domestic workers, return home only to discover they have now been labeled “annoba,” a Hausa word which roughly translates to “epidemics” or “Boko Haram wives.”{loadposition myposition}
Fears of radicalization
Many residents fear that these women may have been radicalized by Boko Haram. They base their arguments on the rising numbers of suicide bombings that have been carried out by women and girls in recent months. Their rejection by the community is among several unintended consequences of the military’s recent successful bid to liberate territories previously held for months by Boko Haram.
DW
