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Dapchi school girls: How Leah Sharibu failed to escape from Boko Haram custody

Published

7 years ago

March 31, 2018

Leah Sharibu, the only student of Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, still in Boko Haram custody, reportedly made an unsuccessful attempt to escape.
The insurgents abducted 110 students on February 19 and released them a month later, with the exception of Sharibu and five students who died in captivity.

She was held back for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.

Some of Sharibu’s schoolmates said while in custody, she had sneaked away with two other girls.

“We thought she was just going round the corner, but she sneaked out, along with Maryam and Amira (the other two classmates),” Aisha Ibiwa, one of the girls, told UK Guardian.

“They walked for three days, before meeting a family who rather than help them return to Dapchi, returned them to the Boko Haram militants,” she added.

Hajara Adamu, another of Leah’s friends, recalled: “The Fulani man (from the family) said to them, ‘so you are the missing girls that we’ve heard about on the radio.’ He gave them a jerrycan filled with cow’s milk and brought them back.

“Leah and her group weren’t flogged. They [Boko Haram] said it was because they had suffered a lot while trying to escape.”