Boko Haram’s War on Women: Abductees Speak of Systematic Rape, Suicide Bombers, and Survival

Samira is 14, and she looks it. She’s skinny and shy. Occasionally, she zones out of conversations, tilting her head towards the ceiling. Quietly watchful, her rare smiles give the impression she’s just started practicing them again.

For seven months, Samira was locked in a room and raped repeatedly by multiple men. Most of the time the perpetrator was her “husband” — a Boko Haram militant she was forced to marry. When he left for regular fighting missions, Samira fell victim to any other man who wanted to rape or assault her.

When she finally escaped, Samira first ran and then walked nearly 200 miles to Maiduguri. As the city appeared before her days later she realized she had made it and immediately collapsed.

Samira is just one of thousands of women and girls who have been abducted by Boko Haram, officially the deadliest terrorist group in the world and whose attacks have displaced almost 2 million Nigerians and killed tens of thousands more. [The names of victims have been changed to protect their anonymity.]

Read More- Vice News

Image courtesy of BBC