100 Chibok girls ‘unwilling’ to return home

Over 100 of the Chibok girls being held by Boko Haram aren’t enthusiastic to return home, a community leader involved in the negotiations has told the Daily Mail UK.

21 of the over 200 girls abducted in April 2014 by Boko Haram insurgents were released last week and have since been reunited with their families.

The federal government had also noted that negotiations were ongoing for the release of a bigger batch of abducted girls.

Pogu Bitrus, chairman of the Chibok Development Association, was quoted to have said the “unwilling girls” were ashamed to return home because most of them have babies and had been forced to marry Boko Haram insurgents.

According to Bitrus, the freed girls told their parents that their captors divided them into two groups shortly after their abduction.

They said Boko Haram commanders gave them two options; to be conscripted as insurgents and embrace Islam, or become their slaves.

Bitrus said the latter group of girls were used as domestic workers but were not sexually abused.

He also spoke on the importance of foreign education for the 21 freed girls in order to spare them from victimisation in their respective communities.

Many of those who escaped from Boko Haram two years ago, he said, were taunted as “Boko Haram wives” by people in Chibok.

“We would prefer that they are taken away from the community and this country because the stigmatisation is going to affect them for the rest of their lives. Even someone believed to have been abused by Boko Haram would be seen in a bad light”, said Bitrus.

The 21 girls were released after negotiations between the government — brokered by the Swiss government — and the Boko Haram sect.