Escape From Sambisa Forest

Introduction

El’Nasara was the most dreaded henchman, hatchetman, chief executioner and the right arm of the pariah religious sect’s commander himself, Abu Shekau. Therefore, it was El’Nasar who made certain that every planning and execution of operations went exactly as planned. Only El’Nasar approved any amendment to the modus operandi should such an operation need one. In short, El’Nasar enforced the law. He ensured that disciple was maintained within the ranks of the militia rag-tag army. El’Nasar took not nonsense from anyone, and made certain erring militias got deserving punishment to put everyone in check.

             Once he had ordered an erring militia boy to chop off his left hand with his right hand, or wait and suffer the pain of losing all his toes. The boy had lost all of the toes of his right foot. El’Nasar began to chop off the boy’s left toes, one after the other. Not until all five toes of his left foot had gone, that the boy summoned the courage to protect his reaming five other toes and…chop! Off went his right arm.

         After that infamous punishment, El’Nasar kept the sword permanently close by his side, making time to sharpen it every so often. And El’Nasar did many nasty, hideous evil acts of violence with the sword, too. It was this sword that the militia boys dreaded most. If fact, many opted for the bullet in the back while trying to escape rather than face El’Nasar’ sword.

             For many years the outlawed religious sect, Boko Haram, waged guerrilla warfare against the government of Nigeria in the North East. The small bandit outfit soon gained enough firepower to chase the Nigerian soldiers, literally, into the woods.

Other than the dreary weaponry that the outlawed sect so often confiscated from fleeing Nigerian soldiers, they also paraded sophisticated and scary armory, which clearly pointed to some sort of clandestine sponsorship from unknown sources.

             The Boko Haram rapidly gained notoriety, with condemnation from the global society, which also earned the sect cheap international recognition. The hungry mililiamen continued to wreck unwholesome havoc on towns and villages until one day, Abu Shekau, himself the gang leader, seized a small north-eastern town and declared it his state capital. He called it the caliphate. He brought down the Nigerian flag at the deposed army post and raised his white flag with a black star.

             It would be many years later, perhaps with the change in government and new leadership that the retired Nigerian army general who became President, viewed Boko Haram’s insurgency as a personal affront, and took the war directly to Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest with air-bombardments. Even at that, the war on terrorism was terribly compromised by another incident involving the lives of over two hundred school girls.

But before all of that saving grace came, the affected people became traumatized with many taking shelter in refugee camps across the country. They became what is now referred to as Internally Displaced People, IDP.

             The Boko Haram sect carried out many atrocities, but the one that would definitely put its dirty stamp on the international circus of terrorism, was the wholesome abduction of over 200 school girls from the Chibok Community Secondary School.

             As to be expected, this horrendous act not only dismayed and shocked the entire world, but spurred the wife of the American President to voice her outrage and protest on Twitter with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

The hashtag went viral.