Former child soldiers fighting bigger battle than Boko Haram

After the fall of Sambisa Forest, which symbolized the

beginning of the end of terrorist sect Boko Haram, a

major problem that still lingers is the influx of

youngsters, male and female, who were trained and

armed by the group as fighters, into communities of

Borno State. Wandering unaccompanied, these former

‘child soldiers’, mostly teenagers, have either been

engaged in attacking and raiding communities, killing in

the process, among other violent crimes.

Mamman, 16, is one of the known former child soldiers

of Boko Haram, and he became popular along Baga

Road in Maiduguri because of several gun-handling

skills he demonstrates, from how to handle them, to

uncoupling and assembling them. He is also skilled at

maneuvering and is a dogged fighter. In demonstrating

these skills to the appreciation of soldiers who admit

that some of his skills were actually military-like,

Mamman said he learnt them during intensive training

he had received at the border between Nigeria and

Chad when he was a Boko Haram fighter.

“My father is a lorry driver. I was a conductor of

another man’s vehicle and we carried goods destined

for Lagos when the insurgents who blocked the

Maiduguri-Damaturu road intercepted us and took me

to their camp at a bush not too far from Maiduguri. I

soon began to accompany the insurgents to raid

villages in Marte and Dikwa local governments,”

Mamman said.

Mamman told Daily Trust that his main duty then was

to help the insurgents carry weapons and other

equipment onto trucks, and assist in carting away

goods when they loot any community. “One day,

soldiers opened fire at us when we went to raid a

village. The armed insurgent near me was shot dead

and his corpse fell down with his gun near me. I was

lying on the ground. When the shooting stopped, I took

his gun and ran to join the fray,” he said.

Mamman said the insurgents were pleased with how he

handled the situation, so he was allowed to keep the

gun. When they returned to camp, he soon began to

receive lessons on marksmanship, firearm management

and others. “A few months later, I was sent to a

training camp in the bush near a village in Chad where

one Arab and two white people taught us how to handle

guns, over 100 of us,” he said.

Mamman, who is now roaming the streets of Maiduguri

with friends of questionable character after relocating

from his parents’ home, is not in school or practicing

any trade.

The case of Yabani, 13, and Hudu, 9, who were

recovered from a Boko Haram camp by a foster

mother, Aisha, is yet another sad one. She told Daily

Trust: “I was at an insurgents’ camp where I was held

for over a year, when the military stormed the camp

one afternoon and serious battle ensued between the

insurgents holding us and the soldiers. I was hiding

behind a large tree when I saw this 9-year-old boy,

Hudu, dragging a gun on the ground crying. I didn’t

know him, but I beckoned at him to drop the gun and

come to me, which he did.”

When Hudu came, Aisha says she persuaded him to

stop crying and both of them crouched low to avoid

bullets, which were flying around. “Not long after, as the

battle was raging, I again saw another boy, about 13,

called Yabani and he was having problems with the gun

he held on to, as it was obviously too heavy for him.

He was crying too, and I asked him to drop the gun

and come to me. He dropped it, and came and hid

beside me and Hudu. When the soldiers advanced

towards where we hid, I stood up with the baby I was

nursing and raised up my hands. I told them we were

abductees. They evacuated us along with other victims

and brought us to Maiduguri. The two boys still cannot

trace their parents and have since been staying with

me.”

Narrating his ordeal, Yabani said he was abducted by

insurgents after his mother and father were slaughtered

before him and his 15-year-old sister waiting to be

given out in marriage was taken away. He was taken

away in a different vehicle from the one that took away

his sister. “I have not seen her since then,” he said,

tearfully.

“I do not know for how long I stayed with the

insurgents, but I know that it was before the rainy

season. For several months they have been trying to

teach me how to use guns, along with about 60 other

youngsters. But I don’t like guns, and whenever one is

fired near me, it terrifies me greatly. That became a

problem, because they would assault me anytime I

refuse to fire a gun. Whenever a gun is shot near me I

feel terrified,” Yabani told Daily Trust.

Yabani said on the day troops attacked, he was scared,

but the Amir (Commander) shared guns and also gave

to him. “When our mother (Aisha) saw me, I was crying

because the gun was too heavy for me and I was

confused by all the sporadic gunshots.”

But the case of Hudu, who is younger, is more

touching. Aisha said a day after rescuing him, he could

not remember his own name “I named him Hudu,” she

said, a deep sadness in her eyes.

When Daily Trust probed Hudu about how he was

abducted by the insurgents, he said, “I recall that I was

sleeping when I started hearing gunshots. It was dawn,

and when I opened my eyes, there was no single

member of my family at home. They had all fled. I

came out of the house crying, when the insurgents saw

me and took me away to the forest. I cannot remember

the name of my parents and I cannot also remember

the name of my village.”

Both Yabani and Hudu have been enrolled into a

primary school in Maiduguri, where they are dealing

with their trauma by mixing up with other kids.

Aisami Bamalum, 58, is a displaced person from

Abadam local government now living at the Teachers

Village Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in

Maiduguri, the state capital. He told Daily Trust that the

former child soldiers of Boko Haram have no sense of

direction. He also said many rapes of married women

and execution of young girls, boys and the aged were

carried out by the youngsters while Boko Haram held

sway.

Without parents or figures of authority to guide them,

they have been co-opted to commit violent acts, as far

as murder, Bamalum said. “I was in Malam Fatori when

it was taken over by the insurgents. Majority of those

who were raping women and killing people

indiscriminately were the youngsters, mainly teens from

13 to 17, armed by the insurgents to fight.”

According to Bamalum, Boko Haram’s child soldiers

were particularly dreaded, because they kill without

asking questions, with nothing more than a distant look

in their eyes, no doubt drug-induced. “All they know how

to do is pull the trigger and kill,” he said.

The chairman of the State Emergency Management

Agency (SEMA), Engineer Ahmed Alhaji Satomi said

there are several such children under the care of the

state government, currently undergoing de-

radicalization and counseling, just as some of them are

in IDP camps and at the host communities.

Satomi added that it is indeed necessary to address the

situation. “Government alone cannot handle everything.

Individuals and organizations should key into the

program to assist,” he said.