Escapee Monica Sunday Met With Chibok Girls November

A 20-year-old Christian woman narrated an
emotional story of her meeting 24 Chibok girls,
abducted April 14, 2014, by Boko Haram
militants. She assures they are alive.
Monica Sunday. Credits: Channel 4
Monica Sunday said she had been held together
with 24 Chibok girls for 3 days last November.
Speaking with UK’s Channel 4 correspondent, the
woman said that the children were not harmed
but were forced to cook for the militants.
Monica who tried to support the girls added that
they were tearful and wanted to come back home.
Monica was kidnapped from Kiva in the course of a
dire Boko Haram attack. She has recently arrived
to a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
located near Abuja.
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See extracts from her speech below:
“They were very emotional.
“None of the girls really talked very much. They just
cried and prayed and lamented for their parents. I
comforted them and told them to have faith in God
and that He would open a way for them so that their
nightmare would be over.
“I would say to them, ‘It’s not your fault, you were
just trying to get an education. Look, even if they say
they want to sell you, just keep your faith in God
and pray.'”
Monica herself was deeply traumatised by her own
experience and lost her small baby, Abraham John.
She managed to escape 2 months after the
kidnap and tell the story about the 24 Chibok girls,
who according to her had remained true to their
Christian faith. They wore simple head-coverings –
not full hijabs – she said, but none was practising
Islam.
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Monica will never forget her terrible ordeal:
“When they came into our village, I was terrified. I
was actually pregnant. We ran to the mountain. I
was so scared. Even now my body shakes with fear
when I hear the words Boko Haram.”
Regarding the children’s health, Monica said:
“The girls I was with were all in their mid-teens,
some a bit younger, some older. None of them was
sick.”
She confirmed that the abducted girls had been
divided. She also said that none had been forced
into marriage (as it was previously provided by Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in one of the
videos).
“They divided them up. Some were taken to Gwoza.
Not all of them are held in one place.”
After 3 days with the Chibok girls Monica was
relocated to another camp where she was kept with
40 women kidnapped from across northern Nigeria.
“Among them was one particular woman who they
beat until she was bleeding all over her body
because she refused to convert to Islam. She
eventually succumbed.”
Monica refused to be converted, which provoked the
insurgents’ rage.
“They were really angry with me and shouted and
screamed at me and called me ‘arney’” – an abusive
term for “infidel” in the Hausa language.
Monica also disclosed that the Boko Haram
commander in the Sambisa camp was called
Ibrahim Shekau, who she described as “assistant” to
Abubakar Shekau, the apparently deranged leader of
the group. It is not clear whether they are relatives.
READ ALSO: Touching Story Of Two Chibok Escapees
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Regarding the conditions kidnap victims are being
kept, Monica said that at least 1,000 women were
held captive there and thousands of rebel soldiers.
“Most of the soldiers are out in the bush all the time,
hunting others.”
Soldiers, with guns and military vehicles, had access
to roads, she said adding that insurgents had no
problems with food and water in the camp.
“They even have grinding machines. We had rice
and we had corn. No meat, but sometimes there
was fish.”
When asked about whether it would be possible for
the Chibok girls to escape, Monica responded:
“It would be very hard.”
Monica managed to escape when she was for an
unknown reason driven out of the camp into the
bush at night with her baby.
She found herself miles from anywhere and started
walking east, towards Gwoza, 3 long days without
food. Her baby died and Monica could not even bury
the little Abraham.
As she reached Gwoza, she started her way to
Cameroon, where she tracked down her parents.
Earlier this year she came to Abuja in the hope of
meeting her husband, John, again.
Within a 2-week period Monica said she had been
questioned in detail by Nigerian military:
“The military people asked me many questions
about the Chibok girls. They vowed to me they
would go to the Sambisa forest as soon as they
possibly could.”
This week Nigeria marked the sad date: 300 days
without the Chibok girls. And the parents are still
waiting for their rescue.