In this photo taken Wednesday, April 8, 2015, a woman walks past Nigerian Soldiers at a checkpoint in Gwoza, Nigeria, a town newly liberated from Boko Haram. (AP Photo) Some of the nearly from the forest stronghold of Boko Haram were so transformed by their captivity that they opened fire on their rescuers, and experts said Wednesday they would need intensive psychological treatment.
The military was flying in medical and intelligence teams to evaluate the former captives, many of whom were severely traumatized, said army spokesman Col. Sani Usman.
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He said earlier that none of the schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok a year ago appeared to be among the 200 girls and 93 women rescued Tuesday. But on Wednesday he said further screening was needed before their identities could be determined.
“The processing is continuing, it involves a lot of things because most of them are traumatized and you have got to put them in a psychological frame of mind to extract information from them,” Usman said.
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A counselor who has treated other women freed from Boko Haram captivity said some had become indoctrinated into believing the group’s Islamic extremist ideology, while others had established strong emotional attachments to militants they had been forced to marry.
Some of the about 90 women and girls freed by the army four months ago in Yobe state, for example, had upset their community on their return by maintaining that the militants were good people who had treated them well, said the counselor, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he has been targeted by the militants in the past.
“The trauma suffered by the (abducted) women and girls is truly horrific,” said Amnesty International’s Africa director for research and advocacy, Netsanet Belay. “Some have been repeatedly raped, sold into sexual slavery or indoctrinated and even forced to fight for Boko Haram.”
That is what appeared to have happened this week when the Nigerian military said troops rescued the women and girls while destroying four Boko Haram camps in the Sambisa Forest.
Boko Haram used some of the women as armed human shields, a first line of defense who opened fire as the troops approached, according to an intelligence officer and a soldier who were in Sambisa during the rescue. The soldiers managed to subdue the women and round them up, said the men, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive issue with the media.
No one knows how many captives are in the