Amina found nursing 4-month old baby as ‘Boko Haram Commander’ husband is arrested
IT was bitter-sweet reunion for 19 yr-old Amina Ali Nkek after over two years of being held captive by Boko Haram.
Although Amina was reunited with her mother yesterday, she, however, came back with a package: a baby named Safiya.
The rescued girl was also the harbinger of bad news: six of the girls are dead.
Amina was reportedly rescued by local security forces known as Civilian JTF after she was discovered hiding in a house at Baale village, in Damboa local government yesterday.
A vigilante member, who participated in the rescue operation, told newsmen in Maiduguri that Amina told them that most of the girls “may be alive in some of the villages around Sambisa,” a known Boko Haram stronghold where the military is currently carrying out a crackdown on the insurgents.
“I identified her as soon as we saw her hiding with some other ladies. She was the only girl from Chibok and she carries a baby.
“We took her to Chibok for identification from her parents, then, back to the military in Damboa.
“She said many of the girls are still alive except for six who have died.”
Borno Governor, Kashim Shettima, in his first reaction said the discovery was “heartwarming” and hoped “it will lead to the rescue of the remaining girls.”
On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram abducted 219 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state.
After several efforts, advocacy and billions of naira down the drain, only a handful of the girls have been found.
Sources also said Amina is from the town of Mbalala, south of Chibok, from where 25 of the kidnapped girls came.
Her uncle, Yakubu Nkeki, told Associated Press, a foreign news agency that Amina was later reunited with her mother in Chibok.
“She was 17 when abducted and is now 19,” he said.
Amina is expected to be moved soon to Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno state.
In recent days, Nigerian media reported that the army had launched a number of operations against Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest.
It also emerged that ‘Commander Mohammed Hayatu,’ who claimed to be Amina’s husband has been captured.
