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Leah, Christian captive of Boko Haram for three years: for her family, "the silence of the authorities is torture"

2021-02-19T12:22:49.093Z


The then 14-year-old high school student refused to convert to Islam, leaving her fate in the hands of the jihadist militia in northeastern Nigeria. His family, supported by NGOs, remains hopeful of a return.


Chibok in 2014, Dapchi in 2018, Kankara in 2020 ... The list of large-scale kidnappings in high schools and boarding schools in Nigeria is long.

On Wednesday February 17, another 27 students were kidnapped in the west of the country, where attacks have become commonplace through the spread of terrorist groups, most of them affiliated with Boko Haram.

Read also: New kidnapping of students in Nigeria: the president orders a rescue operation

On February 19, 2018, it was very dry in Yobe State, northeastern Nigeria.

A day like any other for high school where Leah Sharibu, 14, was then a boarder.

In the middle of the day, armed men disembark.

The attackers, then identified as members of the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram, take 110 high school girls, whom they will keep for nearly a month in captivity.

Read also: Nigeria: Boko Haram broadcasts a video of kidnapped high school students

At the end of March in Dapchi, it is the joy of reunion: the city celebrates the return of high school girls, released thanks to negotiations between the authorities and the kidnappers.

But one of them is missing, reports the BBC: it is Leah, the only Christian in the group.

"

They asked her to accept Islam, but she refused,

" reports one of her comrades relayed by

The Guardian

.

As the young girls boarded the bus sent by the federal government to join their families, the jihadists asked if there were any Christians among them.

Leah raised her hand.

We begged her to recite the profession of faith in Islam, put on the hijab and get on the bus, but she maintained that it was not her faith (...).

They decided that she would not come with us, and kept her with them,

”said her released comrades.

Dapchi Girls' Boarding School, Yobe State, Northeastern Nigeria.

Rd Gideon Para-Mallam

Proof of life

While watching

the scenes of jubilation on the return day

on

CNN

, I saw a woman in a corner crying.

It was Rebecca Sharibu, Leah's mother

, ”recalls Reverend Gideon Para-Mallam.

Since that day, this pastor, a retired former academic and member of the same evangelical community as Leah, the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), has pleaded with the Nigerian authorities to find the teenager.

Having such a force of conviction at his age impressed me

,” he confides in

Le Figaro

.

How, so young, could she show such courage?

".

Leah Sharibu in 2017. Open Door Association

According to the Leah Sharibu Foundation, created

ad hoc

to support the relatives of the captive, the last proof of life dates from 2020. "

A released hostage saw her and confirmed to us that she was still alive,

" the foundation assures us of. du

Figaro

.

A few months after his kidnapping, Boko Haram, in a message addressed to the Nigerian news agency "

The Cable

", declared Leah Sharibu "

slave

".

From today, Leah and Alice

(Alice Loksha Ngaddah, UNICEF Christian nurse) are our slaves.

According to our doctrine, we are now allowed to do with it what we want,

”he said in the press release.

Read also: The Pope denounces the "horrors" of Boko Haram in Nigeria

"

This is how groups affiliated to the Islamic State are used to acting

," explains Claire Lacroix, information manager of the Portes Ouvert association, present in 66 countries and very involved in the issue. by Leah.

They demand that every hostage declare their faith in Allah.

Those who refuse are kept in detention, and women are often enslaved and forcibly married, to be forced into conversion

”.

At the end of 2020, the index of the association for persecuted Christians indicated Nigeria as the first country where Christians are killed for their faith.

Silence of the authorities

This Friday, Leah Sharibu has been held hostage by Boko Haram for 1096 days.

"

It's inconceivable,

" said Reverend Gideon Para-Mallam.

The pastor regularly visits Nathan and Rebecca, Leah's parents, who remain hopeful.

"

They do not understand the deafening silence of the government,

" said the pastor who had obtained, in October 2018, a brief telephone interview between President Buhari and Leah's mother.

Since then, not a call, not a news on the investigations, nothing

, he declares.

This culture of silence is psychological torture for the family

”.

For its part, the Open Doors association is pleading with the authorities for the establishment of a support structure for the relatives of victims of terrorism, who are increasingly numerous. In 2018, a campaign launched by the organization had collected tens of thousands of letters of encouragement for the parents of the teenager. "

The specificity of her story has allowed Leah to be publicized, it may be her luck,

" says Claire Lacroix, recalling also that of the 200 students kidnapped at Chibok in 2014, only 112 returned.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-02-19

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