Rukayyat is one of the numerous persons displaced from their homes as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. The woman, who witnessed the gruesome slaughtering of her husband, has since lost her mind and is now suffering from mental disorder.Rukayyat who is presently staying in the Damare NYSC Camp for internally displaced persons, IDPs in Adamawa State, could hardly coordinate her speech when she spoke to Vanguard Metro, VM.
The mental turmoil that Rukayyat is going through, was visibly written all over her body when she was ushered in to have a chat with VM.
She looked scruffy, disheveled, skeletal and pale. When asked what was wrong with her, she gazed into the skies before muttering that her husband was slaughtered like a ram in her presence by the Boko Haram insurgents.
One of the inmates who did not want her names in print, told VM that since the gory incident took place, Rukayyat has been behaving in a funny way.
According to her, Rukayyat’s four-month-old baby girl is now being taken care of by other concerned women in the camp, since she can no longer cater for the baby adequately.
Meanwhile, health experts attached to the camp have subjected her to series of counselling to see if she can regain her mental stability. Rukayyat’s story is one of the gory tales told by those who were displaced from their homes in Adamawa State since Boko Haram laid siege on the once peaceful state.
Incessant killings
The incessant killings and destruction of properties of innocent Nigerians by the dreaded sect in the North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa have rendered many victims homeless. Some of the internally displace persons, IDPs, from recent attacks in Gwoza, Madagali, Gulak, Michika, Bazza, Shuwa, and part of Mubi are now taking shelter in a refugee camp located at the Damare NYSC camp.
A visit to the camp would make even the strong-willed to break down in tears. The camp has become a miniature Mecca with those who are touched by the plight of the victims, coming in to donate relief materials.
At each of such occasions, the inmates took time to recount their ordeal and how they have been made widows, widowers, orphans and homeless by the evil-minded insurgents.
According to them, they were only lucky to escape alive as hundreds of others, mainly youths, were slaughtered and their homes razed. Recounting her ordeal, another victim of the insurgency who resides in the Damare Camp, Mallama Tani Asabi, said the insurgents had a field day in her town when they attacked it.
According to her, they (Boko Haram members) operated unmolested. She explained that both the soldiers and residents could not offer any strong resistance as they ran into the nearby bushes and hills to save their lives.
She alleged that the insurgents later assembled the people who could not escape and slaughtered them at the community square.
Tani further alleged that when the insurgents became tired of slaughtering the men, they decided to shoot the remaining, hence the town was littered with corpses of men.
“We, the women, took up the task of burying our husbands and children who were killed in their hundreds, as a mark of our last respect to them.
We did this because almost every part of the town was littered with corpses and we could not help but bury them. The exercise was as gory as it was chilling and will remain indelible in our minds,” she cried.
Tani said initially the insurgents promised to take care of the women (having killed their husbands) and children but the promise was fulfilled in the breach as the insurgents started abducting them into the bushes. “That was why we had to run for our lives,” she explained.
Another IDP, Mr. Bukar Bitrus, said he suspected foul play in the whole saga. He alleged that the government is behind the unfortunate incident.
His words: “A day to the Boko Haram onslaught in the town, some indigenes of the area who are residing in Abuja and Lagos asked us to repair a bridge in Awale, after which they asked us to go back to Gwoza town,” he said, alleging that the people prevented anybody from going out of the town. He said he managed to escape before the insurgents struck, hence he believes that there is a grand conspiracy behind the set up.
Bitrus said the insurgents came in large numbers. “At first, they told us (residents) they are not after us but are on a mission to dislodge the soldiers.
They therefore proceeded to the various military units in the town, including TC, Kofar Sarki and Government Lodge. Immediately they dispersed the soldiers, they came back to the town and opened fire on the youths,” he said, adding that he was forced to lie in thick foliage behind his house until the sporadic shooting subsided.
Sporadic shooting
Bitrus said the cessation of shooting was a decoy by the insurgents to deceive the people that they have left the town. According to him, unsuspecting residents who fled to the bushes and hilltops returned to the town, only for members of the sect to strike again in the morning when the people had started their daily chores. He alleged that as a result, about 2000 people were killed.
“Whenever they sighted a youth, they will kill him unless those that pledge to become new converts of the insurgents,” he said.
Another refugee, Mallam Isyaku Bama, said he stayed in the hilltop for about 15 days before being taken to the IDP camp.
Unlike Bama, Mallam Ahmadu Datti, another IDP, said he hid in the ceiling of his house for 10 days before his wife told him that the insurgents have launched a house-to-house search for men and have slaughtered many of those they found. Datti said he waited till night fall before escaping through the bush. According to him, he left the town around 8pm and reached Madagali around 2:00 am.
But another 10-year-old member of the camp, Sini Mamza, said he has been out of school for a long time as insurgents have burnt down their school.
VIA
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