Nigerian missing girls: Families sleep in the bushes, fearing more attacks
Vladimir Duthiers, Holly Yan and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN
Updated
9:13 AM EDT, Wed May 7, 2014
Story highlights
A father says despite officials' claims, he has seen no military presence
Parents and children sleep in the bushes, fearing more attacks by Boko Haram
The father has searched for the girls himself, venturing out with bow and arrow
Mother: Our daughters have been adopted or captured as slaves
CNN anchor Isha Sesay will be live from Abuja on CNN International, Monday to Thursday at 5pm, 7pm, 8.30pm and 9pm CET.
(CNN) —
He ventures into the forest looking for his daughters, armed with bow and arrow in case the terrorists surprise him.
The odds are stacked against him. No one has found the 276 girls abducted from their school last month by the terror group Boko Haram.
But then again, no one’s really been looking, the father says.
That night of horror
The father’s voice shakes as he recalls the night his two daughters were snatched from their dormitory at an all-girls school in Nigeria.
It began with an explosion so loud that it shook buildings in the northern village of Chibok, waking the girls’ family. That was quickly followed by the sound of gunfire echoing into the dark night.
By the time father made it to the Government Girls Secondary School, the militants had already opened fire on security guards and set buildings on fire.
Unarmed, there was nothing the father could do but watch … and wait.
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Police in riot gear block a route in Abuja, Nigeria, on Tuesday, October 14, during a demonstration calling on the Nigerian government to rescue schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. In April, more than 200 girls were abducted from their boarding school in northeastern Nigeria, officials and witnesses said.
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Olamikan Gbemiga/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Women in Abuja hold a candlelight vigil on Wednesday, May 14, one month after the schoolgirls were kidnapped.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
People march in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday, May 12, to demand the release of the kidnapped schoolgirls.
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PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Catholic faithful in Abuja take Holy Communion and pray for the safety of the kidnapped schoolgirls on Sunday, May 11.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Catholic faithful attend a morning Mass in honor of the kidnapped schoolgirls in Abuja on May 11.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Catholics nuns pray in Abuja on May 11.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
A woman attends a demonstration Tuesday, May 6, that called for the Nigerian government to rescue the girls.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Community leader Hosea Sambido speaks during a May 6 rally in Abuja.
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PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, Nigeria's top military spokesman, speaks to people at a demonstration May 6 in Abuja.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Women march Monday, May 5, in Chibok, Nigeria.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
People rally in Lagos on Thursday, May 1.
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Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Police stand guard during a demonstration in Lagos on May 1.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Protesters take part in a "million-woman march" Wednesday, April 30, in Abuja.
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DEJI YAKE/EPA /LANDOV
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Nigerian education minister and vice president of the World Bank's Africa division, leads a march of women in Abuja on April 30.
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PHILIP OJISUAPHILIP OJISUA/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
A woman cries out during a demonstration in Abuja on Tuesday, April 29, along with other mothers whose daughters have been kidnapped.
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Gbemiga Olamikan/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
A man weeps as he joins parents of the kidnapped girls during a meeting with the Borno state governor in Chibok on Tuesday, April 22.
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AFOLABI SOTUNDE/REUTERS/LANDOV
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Mothers weep April 22 during a meeting with the Borno state governor in Chibok.
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AFOLABI SOTUNDE/REUTERS/LANDOV
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Four female students who were abducted by gunmen and reunited with their families walk in Chibok on Monday, April 21.
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Haruna Umar/AP
Photos: Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls —
Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima, center, visits the girls' school in Chibok on April 21.
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Haruna Umar/AP
Map: Where the girls were kidnapped
“When I went into the school compound, nobody will ever stand it,” said the father, who is not being identified for fear of reprisals from attackers or the government.
“You will see their dresses cut out all over. And the hostel and dormitory, everything was bombed into ashes. So this man told us they have gone with our daughters. We couldn’t believe him.”
Armed members of Boko Haram attacked the school on April 14, overpowering the guards and herding the girls onto waiting trucks, according to accounts of that night.
The trucks disappeared with the girls into the dense forest bordering Cameroon, a stronghold for the terror group whose name translates to “Western education is sin” in the local Hausa language.
That’s where the story gets hazy.
Mixed messages from the government
There are questions about just how many girls were taken, with varying reports putting that number between 230 to 276, depending on who is talking.
In the days after the attack, the military said all the girls had been released or rescued. But after the girls’ families began asking where their daughters were, the military retracted the statement.
This much the father knows for sure: His two daughters are among those still in captivity after almost a month.
Nigerian officials have defended their response and said they are searching.
“We’ve done a lot – but we are not talking about it,” presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe said. “We’re not Americans. We’re not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something.”
But the father scoffed at the government’s response.
“We have never seen any military man there,” he said.
“Had it been military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have seen them.”
A video of Abubakar Shekau, who claims to be the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, is shown in September 2013. Boko Haram is an Islamist militant group waging a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria. The group's ambitions range from the stricter enforcement of Sharia law to the total destruction of the Nigerian state and its government. Click through to see recent bloody incidents in this strife-torn West African nation:
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Boko Haram/Getty Images
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Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Bodies lie in the streets in Maiduguri, Nigeria, after religious clashes on July 31, 2009. Boko Haram exploded onto the national scene in 2009 when 700 people were killed in widespread clashes across the north between the group and the Nigerian military.
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Aminuo Abubacar/REUTERS/Landov
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
An official displays burned equipment inside a prison in Bauchi, Nigeria, on September 9, 2010, after the prison was attacked by suspected members of Boko Haram two days earlier. About 720 inmates escaped during the prison break, and police suspect the prison was attacked because it was holding 80 members of the sect.
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Sunday Alamba/AP
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, second from left, stands on the back of a vehicle after being sworn-in as President during a ceremony in the capital of Abuja on May 29, 2011. In December 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of the country afflicted by violence from Boko Haram.
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STRINGER/EPA/LANDOV
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Rescue workers help a wounded person from a U.N. building in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 26, 2011. The building was rocked by a bomb that killed at least 23 people, leaving others trapped and causing heavy damage. Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the attack in which a Honda packed with explosives rammed into the U.N. building, shattering windows and setting the place afire.
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Henry Chukwuedo/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A photo taken on November 6, 2011, shows state police headquarters burned by a series of attacks that targeted police stations, mosques and churches in Damaturu, Nigeria, on November 4, 2011. Attackers left scores injured -- probably more than 100 -- in a three-hour rampage, and 63 people died.
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AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Men look at the wreckage of a car after a bomb blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church outside Abuja on December 25, 2011. A string of bombs struck churches in five Nigerian cities, leaving dozens dead and wounded on the Christmas holiday, authorities and witnesses said. Boko Haram's targets included police outposts and churches as well as places associated with "Western influence."
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Sunday Aghaeze/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A paramedic helps a young man as he leaves a hospital in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on January 21, 2012. A spate of bombings and shootings left more than 200 people dead in Nigeria's second-largest city. Three days later, a joint military task force in Nigeria arrested 158 suspected members of Boko Haram.
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AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A photo taken on June 18, 2012, shows a car vandalized after three church bombings and retaliatory attacks in northern Nigeria killed at least 50 people and injured more than 130 others, the Nigerian Red Cross Society said.
PHOTO:
Victor Ulasi/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A French family kidnapped February 19, 2013, in northern Cameroon is released after two months in captivity in Nigeria. The family of four children, their parents and an uncle were kidnapped in Waza National Park in northern Cameroon, situated near the border with Nigeria. One of the captive men read a statement demanding that Nigeria and Cameroon free jailed members of Boko Haram.
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Maxppp/Landov
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A soldier stands in front of a damaged wall and the body of a prison officer killed during an attack on a prison in the northeastern Nigerian town of Bama on May 7, 2013. Two soldiers were killed during coordinated attacks on multiple targets. Nigeria's military said more than 100 Boko Haram militants carried out the attack.
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STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A deserted student hostel is shown on August 6, 2013, after gunmen stormed a school in Yobe state, killing 20 students and a teacher, state media reported.
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AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A photograph made available by the Nigerian army on August 13, 2013, shows improvised explosive devices, bomb-making materials and detonators seized from a Boko Haram hideout. Gunmen attacked a mosque in Nigeria with automatic weapons on August 11, 2013, killing at least 44 people.
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Deji Yake/EPA/LANDOV
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Nigerian students from Jos Polytechnic walk on campus in Jos, Nigeria, on September 30, 2013. Under the cover of darkness, gunmen approached a college dormitory in a rural Nigerian town and opened fire on students who were sleeping. At least 40 students died, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
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Ruth McDowall/EPA/LANDOV
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Soldiers stand outside the 79 Composite Group Air Force base that was attacked earlier in Maiduguri on December 2, 2013. Hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked an Air Force base and a military checkpoint, according to government officials.
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STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Catholic priest Georges Vandenbeusch speaks to reporters outside Paris after his release on January 1, 2014. Vandenbeusch was snatched from his parish church in Cameroon on November 13. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for kidnapping the priest.
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ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA/LANDOV
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
A man receives treatment at Konduga specialist hospital after a gruesome attack on January 26, 2014. It was suspected that Boko Haram militants opened fire on a village market and torched homes in the village of Kawuri, killing at least 45 people.
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Jossy Ola/ap
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Police officers stand guard in front of the burned remains of homes and businesses in the village of Konduga on February 12, 2014. Suspected Boko Haram militants torched houses in the village, killing at least 23 people, according to the governor of Borno state on February 11.
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STRINGER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Yobe state Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam, left, looks at the bodies of students inside an ambulance outside a mosque in Damaturu. At least 29 students died in an attack on a federal college in Buni Yadi, near the capital of Yobe state, Nigeria's military said on February 26, 2014. Authorities suspect Boko Haram carried out the assault in which several buildings were also torched.
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ap
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Rescue workers try to put out a fire after a bomb exploded at the busiest roundabout near the crowded Monday Market in Maiduguri on July 1, 2014.
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STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Police in riot gear block a route in Abuja on October 14, 2014, during a demonstration calling on the Nigerian government to rescue schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. In April, more than 200 girls were abducted from their boarding school in northeastern Nigeria, officials and witnesses said.
PHOTO:
Olamikan Gbemiga/AP
Terrorists fill the void
Boko Haram, on the other hand, is entrenched in the region.
The father believes that either supporters or members of Boko Haram live in his village.
They know his family, the father says. They know about his daughters.
The family is so afraid, he says, that they have fled their home and taken to sleeping in the bush.
“Life is very dangerous in Chibok right now. Since on 14th of April, to date, we don’t sleep at home,” the father said.
They’re not alone. The father said that starting around 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening, “people will disappear into the bush because there is no security.”
“We sleep in the bush with all of our little ones,” he said.
A violent force, a mother’s plea
Boko Haram is a ruthless, powerful force.
The group says its goal is to impose stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa’s most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
Under its version of Sharia law, women should be at home raising children and looking after their husbands, not at school learning to read and write.
A video that surfaced this week showed a man claiming to be the group’s leader saying he will sell the hundreds kidnapped girls.
“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” said a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.”
The mother of the two girls had little response, just tears.
“Most of the women, we mothers, we started crying because had no one to help us,” she said. “Our daughters (have) been adopted or captured as slaves. Now … we cannot even eat.”
This isn’t the parents’ first experience with Boko Haram. They adopted one of their two daughters after her parents were killed by the terrorist group.
The mother begs for the girls’ freedom, away from a lifetime of abuse and slavery.
“They don’t know, probably one of them are born a president or doctor or pastor or a lawyer who will be helpful to the country,” she said. “Why would they molest these little ones? Please … release them.”
Vladimir Duthiers reported from Abuja, Nigeria; Holly Yan and Chelsea J. Carter reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Khushbu Shah also contributed to this report.
