Chibok girls being held captive in Gwoza---freed captive reveals

More than 200 girls who were abducted by Boko
Haram from government secondary school,
Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014 are in Gwoza,
The Cable , an online medium, on Wednesday
quoted Mbutu Papka, a woman who was recently
freed after eight months in the sect’s captivity, to
have said.
Papka, who made the revelation to the
international centre for investigative reporting,
said she was transferred from a poor condition in
Mdita to a fairly tolerable facility in Gwoza where
the abducted girls were being held.
She said, “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.
“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.
They even provided perfume for anyone who
requested for it.”
The 56-year-old woman added that no one was
allowed anywhere near the specific location of
the abducted girls, which was being guarded
round the clock.
Papka was reportedly seized alongside many
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 and Damboa. She and many others, including
children were kept in Mdita for five months before
they were taken to Gwoza, where she was held
for another three months before being released on
March 15.
The woman said the facilities provided for them
in Mdita were so poor that some captives died of
ill health.
“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 said.
The pastor’s wife was said to have had diabetes
and had been on a special diet, which could not
be provided by the insurgents.
Though she said she could not speak for the
abducted girls, Papka said she and the other
women abducted were neither raped nor
assaulted, saying the insurgents lived with their
wives and children in the Gwoza camp.
When she was to be released by the sect on
March 15, Papka was given a sick two-year-old
boy who had been crying uncontrollably. She was
driven home on a motorcycle and asked to pay
N8, 000, which her family did.
Source: the punch newspaper

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