Mar 15, 2016 at 05:43 pm

Surviving the onslaught of terror

Update posted by Ifeanyi Egbuta

Looking malnourished and unkempt, with a baby clutching her breasts trying to suckle a flattened breast, Christiana Estephanus, a 23 year old woman, from Gwoza, in Borno State, who fled her village after it was rampaged by the terrorists, managed to give us a cheerful smile as we exchanged greetings in Hausa Language. She was a farmer back in her village, and her husband was a butcher. She narrated the horrors she experienced as many of the men in her village were killed by the Boko Haram terrorists, so the women and children fled into the mountains, as she fled with her children, a bullet whizzed past them, but luckily none of them was hit. The Boko Haram fighters caught up with them and forced them back to the village. Luckily she and her family escaped, and fled to Cameroon. While in Cameroon, she got news of the death of her uncle, so she traveled to Lassa in Bornu state for the burial, after the burial, she had to return to Cameroon as her homeland was still very volatile and unsafe as the rampage of the Terrorists continued. Shortly after, she got another message that her father and brother have been killed by the insurgents, she had to return to her village, and from there she and her family moved on to Yola, then to Taraba, from where they relocated to this camp. She says that life has been better since she came to this camp, due to the benevolence and goodwill of NGOs and private individuals who have supported them and provided them with food and other needs, but it is not the same as it would have been if they could fend for themselves while living in their own homes. She says, among their most desperate needs are, medical care, food, and clothing. She also urges the world to pray for her mum, who is still living under the bondage of the Boko Haram, and also her brother and his family still in Cameroon, unable to come here because of lack of money.

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