A decade after that fateful night in April 2014, the world has largely forgotten the plight of the so-called Chibok girls.
But for the victims and their families, the tragedy is ongoing.
"Especially at night, I think about my daughter," Maina, in tears, told Reuters in an interview at his home in Chibok, a Christian enclave in the West African nation's majority Muslim north. "I will never forget her."
Abductees who have returned home have struggled to resume their interrupted lives. Some are raising children fathered by their captors. Others have waited years for funds promised by the government to continue their education.
Those who spent the longest time in captivity have often had the most difficulty reintegrating with civilian life.
Dozens freed only in the past few years are living inside a military-run rehabilitation camp with surrendered Boko Haram fighters they married in the bush, according to the Murtala Muhammed Foundation, a charity that advocates for them. With them are more than 30 children.
"I'm tired of staying in the camp," one Chibok survivor told Reuters, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisals by the military. "I want to go home and stay with my family. There is no place like home."
Three of the surviving women told Reuters that in at least five cases women who arrived at the camp unmarried have been married to surrendered fighters once there. Government officials have officiated over such weddings, in an apparent effort to appease the surrendered fighters, family members say.
Aid groups and relatives say there is no clarity surrounding when - or even if - the women in the camp will be allowed to return home.
"They were brainwashed and their psychological thinking and mindset were changed to favour their abductors," said Dauda Yama whose daughter is inside the camp.
The state official in charge of the rehabilitation project did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
From a longer article at https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20240414-a-decade-on-tragedy-of-nigeria-s-chibok-girls-continues-outside-the-spotlight
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10 years after the Chibok kidnappings some 80-100 girls have not returned
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IwantToRetire · 16/04/2024 17:24
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