By Philip Obaji Jr.<\/p>\n
Babagana was just 16 when Boko Haram militants invaded his town, slaughtered his parents, and abducted the local children.<\/p>\n
It was midnight when Babagana crept out of the Boko Haram hideout that had been his home for three days. Once he made his escape, he walked through the forest for hours before he found help. Like the other boys conscripted by the militants, he had been told that he would be hunted down and killed if he deserted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t leave with anything,\u201d Babagana told me. \u201cWhen the chance came to escape, I only had my pants on. I ran almost naked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babagana was just 16 when militants invaded his town in northeastern Nigeria last May, butchering his parents as he watched, burning down his home, and forcing him to become one of thousands of Boko Haram soldiers.<\/p>\n
Babagana still vividly recalls his involuntary induction into a world of misery. Boko Haram militants invaded the rural town of Gamboru in Borno State, burnt down houses and demanded that the local children be handed over to them. Parents who objected were killed, and a couple of children were forcefully taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me about my parents,\u201d Babagana said. “They then killed them in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is how Boko Haram operates. They first take out your parents so you have no one else to fall back to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The six-year-old insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has produced a replay of the country\u2019s civil war in the late 1960s. Thousands have died, and more than one million people have been displaced. Famine is threatening, and cholera has broken out in some places. Sexual violence is on the rise. And attacks on soft civilian targets continue, carried out by child soldiers much younger than their victims.<\/p>\n
For three days, Babagana, traveled with Boko Haram through the dusty paths of Borno, not knowing what his fate would be as the militants duplicated the horrors they’d visited upon Gamboru. Babagana witnessed many of his fellow captives and people from other villages murdered by Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey killed people for no reason,\u201d Babagana said. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t stand the horror. It made me terribly scared.”<\/p>\n
Although he was only with the militants for three days, Babagana witnessed acts so brutal that he decided to risk his life to escape.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey killed anyone who didn\u2019t heed to their instructions,” he told me. “Girls were often subjected to sexual abuse. Anyone who proved stubborn was shot dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost my mind with all that I saw,\u201d he added. \u201cI thought if I didn\u2019t find a way of escaping, sooner rather than later, it would be my turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babagana tried to rally a handful of fellow captives to escape with him. He was unsuccessful, as they were too scared to make any move. \u201cI tried to talk my colleagues into escaping. They wanted to, but were scared they could be caught and killed,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
Around midnight on the following day, Babagana made his move, running into the bush as his captors shouted in alarm and began to fire at him. He managed to escape without a bullet wound. Alone in the wilderness, he continued to move, not knowing if he was being pursued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky to have escaped,” Babagana said. “There were so many voices and bullets coming after me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Babagana eventually made it back to Gamboru, but found himself ostracized by his kinsmen, who no longer trusted him. Unable to depend on the community for protection, Babagana again went on the move, traveling to from one village to the other across northern Borno and many times narrowly avoiding recapture as militants kept invading new communities. He finally made it to a displacement camp in Maiduguri, a place he now calls home.<\/p>\n
Hassan Mustapha, a child-protection specialist in Maiduguri, said children are often put to \u201ctest of manhood\u201d once there are conscripted.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce a child is conscripted by Boko Haram, he is first asked to kill his parents, which is a symbol of initiation into the sect,\u201d Mustapha said. \u201cThey destroy everything of value to these children so they have no options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the children captured by Boko Haram serve on the front lines, fighting for control of villages and looting the homes of the civilians. Others children serve as spies, scouts, porters, cooks and bodyguards for officers. Girls are also kept as sex slaves.<\/p>\n
Yusuf Mohammed, a Maiduguri resident who works with children affected by trauma, said children are often used as foot soldiers because they are too young to be afraid.<\/p>\n
\u201cMilitants feel more comfortable working with children than with adults because they come cheap, are extremely loyal, and can be easily controlled,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike adults, it is easy to brainwash and intimidate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philip Obaji Jr. is the founder of 1 GAME, an advocacy and campaigning organization that fights for the right to education for disadvantaged children in Nigeria, especially in northeastern Nigeria, where Boko Haram forbids western education.<\/p>\n
Culled from The Daily Beast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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