Horrible Stories From Freed Boko Haram Captives

The women and children recently rescued from the claws of the Boko Haram sect said they were treated inhumanly in the hands of the terrorists on Sunday when they were brought to a government refugee camp, Reuters reports

Boko Haram fighters killed older boys and men in front of their families before taking women and children into the forest where many died of hunger and disease, they said.

The Nigerian army rescued hundreds of women and children last week from the Islamist fighters in northern Nigeria's Sambisa Forest in a major operation that has turned international attention to the plight of hostages.

Two hundred and seventy-five women and children, some with heads or limbs in bandages, arrived in the camp late on Saturday.

"They didn't allow us to move an inch," said one of the freed women, Asabe Umaru, describing her captivity. "If you needed the toilet, they followed you. We were kept in one place. We were under bondage.

"We thank God to be alive today. We thank the Nigerian army for saving our lives," she added.

Nearly 700 kidnap victims have been freed from the Islamist group's forest stronghold since Tuesday, with the latest group of 234 women and children liberated on Friday.

"When we saw the soldiers we raised our hands and shouted for help. Boko Haram who were guarding us started stoning us so we would follow them to another hideout, but we refused because we were sure the soldiers would rescue us," Umaru, a 24 year-old mother of two, told Reuters.

The prisoners suffered malnutrition and disease, she said. "Every day we witnessed the death of one of us and waited for our turn."

Another freed captive, Cecilia Abel, said her husband and first son had been killed in her presence before the militia forced her and her remaining eight children into the forest.

For two weeks before the military arrived she had barely eaten.

"We were fed only ground dry maize in the afternoons. It was not good for human consumption," she said. "Many of us that were captured died in Sambisa Forest. Even after our rescue about 10 died on our way to this place."