Reports indicate that Ruth Bitrus, another Chibok schoolgirl who escaped from Boko Haram captivity with her kid, has been rescued by soldiers from the 21 Army Brigade in Bama, Borno State, Northeast Nigeria.
Eight years after she and her classmates were abducted from their school in Chibok town, Borno, on April 14, 2014, Ruth managed to escape from the Sambisa bush.
Recall that two weeks prior, two Chibok girls; Mary Dauda and Hauwa Joseph, had been rescued by the military after they had left the Boko Haram camp and were hiding in the Gazuwa camp, which is roughly 9 kilometres from Bama Local Government Area in Borno.
Ruth described her story, stating that additional females were still being held captive in Sambisa and that her husband was killed by a bomb that exploded on him as he attempted to lay it against Operation Hadin Kai forces.
“It took me three days to escape from the insurgents’ enclaves. I took some food with me for my child. Some of the Boko Haram insurgents saw me while I was coming out, but I ran to the bush to avoid being arrested,” she said.
Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency specialist and security analyst in Lake Chad, commented on the development and claimed that the Chibok schoolgirls’ voluntary escape was caused by the massive, ongoing offensives of Operation Hadin Kai, which led to hunger and displacement in the terrorist strongholds.
Eight years after the initial kidnapping, he said that more than 100 schoolgirls from Chibok are still unaccounted for.