BREAKING: Maj. General Shuaibu presented a rescued Christian girl kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok 10 years ago. The girl Lydia escaped with three children.
By Douglas Burton
WASHINGTON—The Theatre Commander, North-East, Operation Hadin Kai, Major General Waidi Shuaibu has presented one of the Christian girls kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, Southeast Nigeria by Boko Haram Islamic terrorist in 2014 after 10 years of captivity to official Borno Government in Maiduguri Thursday.
According to Shuaibu, Lydia escaped to Nigerian troops in Mandara mountain, bordering Republic Cameron, Southeast of Borno State on the 17th of April, 2024 and was rescued into freedom after marrying 3 times to Boko Haram Commanders and having three children whose ages are estimated to be 8, 5 and 2.
“On the 17 April 2024, one more Chibok girl was rescued with her 3 children from the Mandara Mountains by troops of Operation Hadin Kai,” Shuaibu said at a press conference in Maiduguri Thursday.
He said that Lydia was rescued with her three children after all three of the fathers were killed in separate attacks before her rescue.
“We then took her to our medical facility where she and her three children were treated for various ailments and healed.
“Today on May 9, 2024 we are handing her over to Borno State officials for onward movement to her family .
In 2014, Lydia Simon and 275 other schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram in the town of Chibok which is a largely Christian Community while most of the girls kidnapped are Christians.
With the rescue of Lydia, it Is believed between 89 and 92 Chibok girls are still in captivity or unaccounted for.
Lydia was rescued alongside her three children two boys and one girl.
How I Escaped from Terrorists Camp
Speaking exclusively to TruthNigeria, Lydia said that “This year would be my tenth year in Boko Haram camp.”
“I was married three times to different Boko Haram members,” Lydia said, dressed in blue Hijab and sitting with her daughters and a son at Nigerian Army offices in Maiduguri.
“My first husband was killed in a war with Nigeria soldiers a few years after we got married. I had one son for him.
“After observing the mandatory Muslim mourning period, I got married to my second husband and we had a child, a girl,” she added.
“One day he went to war and never returned, killed in a battle.”
“After the death of my second husband, I got married to another Boko Haram member who took me in with my two children.
“My third husband was a very liberal Commander. After I had a baby girl with him, I told him that I wanted to go and see my sister. “That was last year. I went to see my sister with my last daughter. I went and came back. He then developed more trust in me. Last month I told him that I wanted to take my children to see my sister and he agreed. That was how I escaped with my children to where Nigeria Army was stationed on the mountain. And we were all brought to Maiduguri,” Simon told TruthNigeria.
“I was not forced into any of the marriages,” she said, when asked by TruthNigeria.
Asked of the number of girls in the camp of Boko Haram, she said: “While were in Sambissa forest, there were many Chibok girls in the camp. They were plenty. But as we moved to Mandara Mountains, I saw only six of them at the time I left.
“To say the truth, I was cared for by my husbands and I never lacked,” she said.
On her age, she said, “I cannot be sure of how old I am. I am confused on what to do in the future,” she said when asked of her future plans.
“I have this feelings that my ability to return to school and start all over has been affected by long separation from learning. I am no longer intelligent enough to return to school. As at now, I don’t know what I want to do for the future.”
Lydia was then handed over to Mrs Aishatu Shetima, Director Social Welfare, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development Borno State and Mrs Asabe Mohammed, Officer in-Charge of Chibok Girls.
No family member of Lydia was present at the event.
—Douglas Burton is the managing editor of TruthNigeria, based in Greenbelt, MD and a former special hire for the U.S. State Department during the American occupation of Iraq.
