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Freed Chibok Schoolgirls Face Harsh Future

CBN

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The 21 Chibok schoolgirls who were reunited with their families after being held by the terrorist group Boko Haram for more than two years, face daunting challenges, a ministry to victims of war told CBN News.

Abduction and rape are commonly used weapons of war in Africa and the victims are often isolated and shunned from their communities.

"The double-edged sword of international attention means all the more, everyone knows who they are and what has happened to them and so no man will take them as a wife," said Kimberly Smith Highland of Make Way Partners ministry.

Make Way Partners works to bring healing and the hope of Christ to women who have suffered rape at the hands of soldiers in South Sudan.

Hear Kimberly Smith Highland describe how the love of Christ can heal the victims of rape in the interview above.

In African society, unmarried women are usually forced to live alone and have no children to care for them as they grow older.

"To be married in Africa is commonly associated with survival," Highland said.

More than 100 of the girls who were kidnapped by the Boko Haram extremists chose to stay with their captors.

The Nigerian government is currently negotiating the release of 83 more girls, but many do not want to return home to Chibok, a small and conservative Christian area in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria. 

Highland said she is not surprised that many girls would be afraid to come home.

"No, not at all. I think one of the biggest reasons for that is the ambivalance about wanting to be home, but what will be waiting for them when they get home," she said.

A report by the Associated Press says that the "unwilling" girls may have been "radicalized" by Boko Haram, according to chairman Pogu Bitrus of the Chibok Development Association.

The girls who refuse to leave are said to be too ashamed to return home because they were forced to marry the terrorists and have their babies. 

One father of a freed girl, Emos Lawal, said his daughter was "praying to let the rest of them have the chance to come out."

It is reported that some of the girls may be suffering from Stockholm syndrome, where they identify with and feel affection for their captors.

Bitrus said they were separated into two groups during their captivity where they were given the choice of joining the extremists, embracing Islam, or becoming slaves.

The girls who were freed are said to be the group that rejected Islam and Boko Haram. The released girls also said they never saw the girls who chose to marry their captors again.

Bitrus says the released girls should be educated abroad because of the stigmas they will face in Nigeria and many will come to the United States.

 

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