A Boko Haram victim, Fayina Akilawus, has narrated her harrowing experience in the camp of the dreaded insurgents and how she finally escaped after several failed attempts.
Fayina, who spent four years in captivity, disclosed how Boko Haram fighters tried to force her and other Christians to convert to Islam and enslaved those who refused.
“They wanted us to convert to Islam and we said no, we will not convert.
“It is their own law that if you do not convert to Islam, you become a slave,” Fayina told Arise News.
Asked what enslavement entailed, she explained, “Yeah, because one, I’m a Christian, and they just want us to be Muslims and if we don’t want to convert to Islam, we’ll be slaves.
“And if we don’t convert, we’ll still be Christians but we’ll be their slave to do some house chores and other things for them. We’re carrying wood, fetching water and all that.”
Fayina said the insurgents also preached to them, urging them to adopt their religion.
“They normally come to our place and preach… that they want us to become a better people in life and all that, by joining their religion. We refused for nine months before they started separating us,” she said.
She added that fighters would then send captives to work in the homes of their commanders as slaves.
Fayina recalled her first escape attempt with another captive, identified as Aunty Jumat.
She said, “The night when we arrived [at their camp] on Saturday night, around seven o’clock, Aunty [Jumat] and I tried to escape. So we escaped that very day, throughout the night, around 7pm, we walked throughout the night till morning. But when we heard a baby’s cry, we thought it was these Fulani cattle rearers.
“We never knew that they had a family, including children within them. So we now heard the baby’s voice. We just said Salamalekun and entered inside.
“When we entered inside, the people now came out and saw us and started shouting, because their way of dressing and ours is different. So they were shouting, ‘who are those people?’”
The pair were recaptured and beaten mercilessly on the journey back to the camp.
“They beat the hell out of us,” she said.
On how she managed to escape after four years in captivity, Fayina said, “Yeah, with God, all things are possible, too. We prayed over it, and God had mercy on us. Because of me, I tried to escape and succeeded the fifth time.
“There’s this other woman, this Fulani woman, who used to sell kunu and nunu in that area. So I met her and said ‘you used to help people to escape, we want to escape.’”
Fayina said the woman initially refused, afraid she might be killed, but Fayina persisted, and the woman eventually agreed to help her flee.