In the Wilderness for Four Days and Four Nights: Woman narrates how she escaped from ISWAP camp in Borno

In the Wilderness for Four Days and Four Nights: Woman narrates how she escaped from ISWAP camp in Borno

By: James Bwala

It was a tale of miracles and God’s intervention in the desert. A lady by the name of Jummai, who was kidnapped along the Maiduguri, Damaturu route in October 2020 and returned to her home in April 2022, offered this true account of her experience at an ISWAP camp in Borno state, northeast Nigeria. According to her, there were seven of them who initially set out on their journey back home but one returned to her imprisonment. Perhaps, she was never part of the covenant to return home.

NEWSng gathered that the Boko Haram insurgents (The ISWAP faction) halted their vehicles and had them removed by a Commander of one of the units of ISWAP fighters, according to Jummai, a Christian woman who had traveled to the village to visit her relatives. As she was traveling back to Maiduguri, she came into contact with the insurgents. She claimed that the Commander was in charge of more than 500 fighters welding sophisticated weapons.

“They led us from the place of abduction down the Damaturu-Maiduguri road into the desert until we were at Damasak (Damasak is one of the 27 local government in Borno state and located in northern Borno and about 190km from Maiduguri by road), from where we traveled to their base near Lake Chad. Because the ISWAP fighters who kidnapped us are not Nigerian, it felt like being in a different world altogether. They were not able to speak English. Six of us were Christians and were treated as slaves. Because of this, unlike other tents in the camp ours was made of old zinc and had no doors.” She clarified.

NEWSng reports that Jummai was aware that all she had left was her faith, and that the only way to survive in this hard place was to adhere to its tenets should she pass away. She clings to her mini Bible as the one reliable source of inspiration from the words, concealing it in an article of clothing and carrying it around in a tiny pocketbook. She feared never being separated from her new friends while they were held captive, and this anxiety led her to develop faith in the idea that God would one day make himself known in that terrifying place.

Also Read: Kashim Shettima @ 56:  An extraordinary leader forged in the theatre of…

“The area where they kept us was snake-infested, but we already knew that we may not still be alive, so reptiles are not our immediate concerns, we grew out of that fear” she explained. “The ISWAP have their own marketplaces there, and the enormous territory is home to hundreds of other camps, each with a different commander in charge of a large group of soldiers. Since some of us were sold to people in need in the other camps, the ISWAP also engages in human commerce. We are fortunate that we stayed on the opposite side of Lake Chad. There is no way out for those who were taken to the Island.” She added.

One of them was a betrayal. They soon learned that she reports back to the men what she observes them doing, and one of such was that they are constantly praying and have taken to fasting as they wait on the day God will move to save them or died while waiting as weeks counts and months passed without a sign, but they remained hopeful. While she took the leadership of the six, the seventh had been with them spying for the fighters.

“At first, they fed us with rice, but soon stopped, and we were supplied with maize flour and soup made from powdered boubou leaves. One day, a fighter came up to me and stated he had noticed I had become leaner. He was concerned, but I knew I had already climbed a mountain to ask God for assistance. I gathered the five, and up until that tragic day when fighting broke out between the two sides, we were always bowed in prayer.

“Because of this, occasionally I plot with the other to flee, but God has restrained such a move until that day when difficulty struck and the two fighting parties fought in an overpowering battle that resulted in soldiers giving way and collapsing to the ground dead. We realized the time was right that day. Seven of us departed from the camp. The seventh was the same lady who watched us closely. She packed soap and detergents in a bag and carried them as we fled the camp during the fighting. We knew she was greedy and would soon realize she had no need of things she carried with her.

“We were far from the camp and exhausted. The woman quickly grew weary from carrying everything, so weary that she exhaustedly decided to turn around and let us continue. After we had wandered in the bush for a day, we heard motorcycles coming. The fight is over and the ISWAP fighters are again out to hunt for us. As God will have it, we found a place where we hide. Somehow, they came around but they could not trace our footprints as wind swept away the trace.

They stayed put for a while, according to Jummai, before uniting and falling to their knees. They continued to pray for guidance the following day and the day after that till they arrived at a location where they could see the Nigerian Troops distantly.

“Due to the fact that the ISWAP was likewise camouflaged, we were initially uncertain. At that point, we all start praying once more while on our knees. My sisters said they hadn’t heard a voice when I asked them whether they had. After a while, we could hear the soldiers singing. Due to the fact that they were singing in English, we could understand them. So we made the decision to go meet them now. When the military saw us coming, they started firing, believing we were some sort of human bombs, but we just laid down and raised our hands in submission. As they drew nearer, they requested us to get up and started questioning us after determining we meant no harm.”

Jummai claims that after questioning them and clearing them, the troops gave them a ride in escorted military vehicles to Maimalari barracks in Maiduguri where they assisted them in reconnecting with their relatives.

In the Wilderness for Four Days and Four Nights: Woman narrates how she escaped from ISWAP camp in Borno