Hear Her Cries

After their captivity the girls, who were mostly Christians, were given the stark choice of converting to Islam and marrying Boko Haram Àghters, or becoming slaves. Ruth, like the majority of the girls, opted to convert and marry. Ruth was recovered when her Boko Haram husband surrendered to the Nigerian military on July 28, 2021, in Bama. She had two children by the man. State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, who met with Ruth and her family, said she would “undertake a rehabilitation and reintegration program that will focus on her health, psychosocial wellbeing and her chosen path to a productive future, all of which will be determined by her.” He added that Ruth’s reunion with her parents kept alive the hopes of other families whose daughters had been kidnapped. 105 At the time of writing, more than 100 of the Chibok girls are still in the hands of Boko Haram. Two days later, her father, Amos Chindo, was forced to attend a Shari‘a court in Anchau, where a lawyer accused him of having prevented his daughter Sadiya from converting to Islam. Proceedings were adjourned to January 14 th , when priests from the Anglican Diocese of Ikara went with Sadiya’s parents to argue that, as Christians, the family were not subject to Shari‘a law. However, the judge declined to hear them and, in Sadiya’s absence, ruled the girl had converted and closed the case. 107 The Hausa Christians Foundation mounted a campaign, calling for her release. In a statement, the foundation said this is one of 30 similar cases they have highlighted over the past three years, adding that often a girl “will be sexually abused even before the marriage to make the parents give up on her when she becomes pregnant.” 108 Sadiya eventually escaped when her guards fell asleep after they left the door to her room open. She described how, after her kidnapping, she had been kept in a room for more than a month and forced to convert to Islam. 109

RUTH NGLADAR POGU

On August 7, 2021, Ruth was reunited with her family after more than seven years in captivity. It was the Àrst time she had seen them since she was seized by Boko Haram in April 2014 as one of the 270 girls taken from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State. 104

SADIYA AMOS

17-year-old Sadiya was abducted in Gidan Dio Nassarawa Tudun Wada Anchua, Kaduna State on the night of January 5, 2020. 106

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