Baga women cry out - 'Boko Haram raping our daughters'

A woman, who survived the January 3, 2015 attack by the Boko Haram insurgency group on Baga, has told the BBC Hausa service that the insurgents are raping the girls in the town.

Baga has been under the control of the insurgents since then.

Pleading for anonymity, she narrated, “Boko Haram fighters are currently in control of the town. When they attacked, they destroyed shops and burnt down our houses.

“There are lots of bodies scattered on the street and some have started decomposing.

“The militants gathered the old men who could not leave the town and some strong women and forced them to bury the corpses because of the stench – I saw all of this.

“Many of the women could not escape during the attack and we were all brought with the old men to the palace of the traditional ruler.

“I spent a week there. In the mornings and evenings, the insurgents would gather the women together and preach to them.

“Two days after the attack, a man who claimed to be Abubakar Shekau [the leader of Boko Haram] came and addressed us.

“He would say, ‘Today, where is your government from local to highest level? You are now under our control.

“After that, Shekau and many of the insurgents left the town in the hands of some Boko Haram members who are from Baga.

“These men have taken control of the young women in the town. They rape and abuse our daughters.

“In the evening, they choose ones who are neither pregnant nor nursing mothers and take them away. They don’t bring them back until the morning. If it is not rape what are they doing to them?”