63 Girls, Women Escape From Boko Haram's Deadly Camp

Sixty-three women abducted by the Boko Haram Islamic sect from Kummabza village in the Damboa LGA of the troubled Borno State have escaped from their kidnappers, security sources confirmed on Sunday.

A member of the youth vigilante group, Adamu Suleiman, said:

“I have just received an alert from my colleagues in Damboa area that about 63 of the abducted women and girls had made it back home. They took to their heels when their captors left them at the camp to go for a major operation. 

“We don’t have the details of their escape yet, but we believe God gave them the opportunity at the time the insurgents came in their large numbers to attack Damboa on Friday.

“We still believe seven women could still be in the camp or perhaps something must have happened to them.”

Consequently, security sources said the women had reunited with their families. Some witnesses said that their unexpected freedom was facilitated when the insurgents left them in the camp to embark on an operation where they attacked military formations on Friday, and killed a Military Officer and several others.

Recall that 70 women were allegedly abducted by insurgents from Kummabza village two weeks ago. The FG had denied the abduction but the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, set up an inquiry into the kidnap. The panel had yet to submit its report when security sources confirmed that the women had escaped from their captors.

Also, investigations into the incident revealed that there was a grand conspiracy to cover up the abduction as the nation was still going through the embarrassment of the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok.

A top Borno State government official had revealed that though 70 women were kidnapped, the government of the state was handling the issue with caution in order not to be drawn into another confrontation with the FG who believed that the abduction of the Chibok girls was masterminded by enemies of the Presidency.

Residents of the villages where the women were abducted said they looked unkempt on their return.