Boko Haram hostage survivors reveal horrific circumstances inside Sambisa Forest

One of the freed hostage rescued by the Nigeria Military Sunday revealed that at least  three women were killed in a landmine explosion and others crushed to death by tanks as the troops  moved in to rescue them from Boko Haram.

The deaths happened in the Islamists' Sambisa Forest stronghold, from where soldiers have freed hundreds of women and children seized during the bloody insurgency in Nigeria's northeast.

More than 700 women and children have been found in the dense forest over the past week, raising hopes the 219 girls snatched from their school in Chibok, Borno state, in April 2014 were among them.

Binta Abdullahi, who was kidnapped from a village near Madagali, in the north of Adamawa, more than a year ago, described the hostages' ordeal as the soldiers moved in.

 

"When the military stormed the camp where we were being held, our captors told us to take cover under trees and shrubs to avoid military shelling," the 18-year-old told reporters in Yola.

"Some women who hid under trees were crushed by military tanks which mowed them down without knowing they were there.

"After soldiers subdued Boko Haram fighters and rescued us they loaded those too weak or sick to trek into vehicles and asked the rest of us to walk behind... to avoid stepping on land mines planted by Boko Haram all over the place.

"At least three women and some soldiers were killed when a mine exploded after a woman stepped on one."

Boko Haram have used kidnapping as a tactic throughout the past six years. Amnesty International said last month more than 2 000 women and girls have been seized since the start of last year.

Abdullahi said she was held in two places before being moved to Sambisa last month, including Boko Haram's "headquarters" in Gwoza, from where the Islamic State group affiliate declared a caliphate last year.

Her two sisters, who were also kidnapped, managed to escape but she stayed as she was looking after three children, aged four and three, whose mothers were not among those kidnapped.

"I couldn't leave them," she said.

Her testimony chimed with that of other former hostages, who described forced labour, marriage, sexual and psychological abuse by their captors, as well as being compelled to fight on the front line.

"They asked us to marry Boko Haram members but we told them there was no way we could get married because we were already married to our husbands," she said.

"They said since we would not marry them they would sell us as slaves at the right time."

Lami Musa, 19, was four months' pregnant when Boko Haram fighters stormed her village of Lassa, near Chibok, five months ago.

She said she was not married off because she was pregnant but was told she would be after she gave birth.

"Fortunately I was rescued a day after giving birth. I thank God," she added.

Another survivor said that Boko Haram fighters stoned some of their captives to death as the military approached to rescue the women, and several women also died when they were crushed mistakenly by a Nigerian military armoured car.

"Most of them looked tired and traumatised. They were unkempt. From their looks they haven't had a bath for days," said Datti, head of NEMA.

The women and children were provided with food, mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, soap and detergents.