News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Woman won't condemn Boko Haram captor

Posted: 21 Aug 2016 06:40 AM PDT

The first Chibok schoolgirl rescued from Boko Haram in more than two years says she misses the man she was forced to marry, writes Adam Withnall.

|||

The first Chibok schoolgirl rescued from Boko Haram in more than two years says she still misses the man she was forced to marry, writes Adam Withnall.

 

The first Chibok schoolgirl rescued from Boko Haram in more than two years says she still misses the man she was forced to marry during her captivity, who is suspected of being an Islamist militant.

Amina Ali was rescued by vigilantes working with the Nigerian military in May this year, along with her 4-month-old baby and a man who she said was her husband, identified as Mohammed Hayatu.

She and her baby are being held in a government facility, a common process for former victims of Boko Haram through which they are supposed to be “deradicalised”.

Speaking in the first interview since her return to her family, the 21-year-old said she is “not comfortable with the way she is being kept from him. I want him to know that I am still thinking about him. Just because we got separated, that does not mean that I don’t think about him”.

Doubt remains over Hayatu’s role in the militant group, which has terrorised north-eastern Nigeria since 2009 and abducted at least 2 000 women and girls.

Ali’s mother, Binta Ali, has told the BBC the man claiming to be her daughter’s husband was a mechanic before he was himself captured by Boko Haram, and that he had organised their escape.

But earlier, her brother told the broadcaster Hayatu had been a fighter for Boko Haram until an increase in Nigerian government air strikes meant he was no longer willing to continue fighting.

Ali’s would not be the first case in which a psychologically traumatised victim of Boko Haram refused to condemn her alleged captor.

International Alert, a charity which conducted research on victims of sexual violence who are referred to as Boko Haram “wives” at refugee camps in north-east Nigeria, has previously told The Independent how it encountered at least one woman during its research who did not see herself as a victim.

Reuters said Ali kept her gaze downcast throughout the interview this week, only relaxing and lifting her head when her child was brought in to the room to be breast-fed.

The interview came just days after Boko Haram released a video showing a masked man standing in front of a group of the Chibok girls, saying some of their classmates had been killed in air strikes.

It is not known how many of the girls themselves are still alive. Only 59 of the 276 schoolgirls initially taken have been confirmed as having escaped, all but Ali and one other within days of their kidnap.

And while Ali had not heard about the video, she said Boko Haram had told the abducted girls that everyone was looking for them.

“I think about them a lot - I would tell them to be hopeful and prayerful,” Ali said. “In the same way God rescued me, he will also rescue them.”

Charities like International Alert say the victims of Boko Haram face becoming victims all over again when they escape, such is the stigma against them in the wider Nigerian populace.

Asked about her ambitions for the future, Ali said: “I just want to go home - I don’t know about school. I will decide about school when I get back, but I have no idea when I will be going home.”

The Independent

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Persecuted in DRC, beaten in Harare, abused in SA

Posted: 21 Aug 2016 01:05 AM PDT

Saturday morning was the first time in months that James Biamungu had not slept on a plank in detention cells or on the pavement.

|||

Pretoria - James Biamungu - the Congolese refugee in search of human security - woke up in a bed on Saturday morning. It was the first time in months that he had not slept on a plank in the Pretoria Central Prison detention cells or on the pavement outside the offices of the UN building in Pretoria.

The Department of Home Affairs released him from detention at 9pm on Friday into the care of his lawyer following an 11th hour agreement that halted his deportation to Zimbabwe.

Biamungu and his wife, Annaline, were overcome with emotion as they left the prison after a harrowing few days of threats to deport them.

The couple fled persecution in the Democratic Republic of Congo and were given refugee status in 2005 by Zimbabwe, where they stayed in the Tongogara refugee camp.

But beatings and persecution by Hutu refugees in the camp and by the Zimbabwean police drove them to leave for South Africa.

Lawyer Nyaradzo Chiwa has saved the day for the Biamungus by convincing the Department of Home Affairs of the grave danger the family would face if they returned to Zimbabwe.

Having fled persecution in Zimbabwe herself, Chiwa was more than aware of the revenge that could have been exacted on James Biamungu for having exposed the beatings he and his wife received at the hands of Zimbabwean police in the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Harare, while under the auspices of a UNHCR protection officer.

The Biamungu family, who are Tutsis, had fled after facing repeated attempts on their lives by Hutu refugees, and sought protection at the UNHCR offices in Harare. What they got was a vicious beating and $50 (R675) to return to the camp.

Officers at Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights told the family the UNHCR protection officer who had overseen this episode was President Robert Mugabe’s nephew.

After accommodating the family for a month, the lawyers’s group instructed them to go back to the UNHCR offices for assistance, but the family were denied access to the building. The lawyers group then advised them to go to South Africa and seek the protection of the UNHCR regional office - which they did.

For the past six years the family have been sent from pillar to post by the Department of Home Affairs and the UNHCR, each of which claimed the other had the responsibility of protecting the family and sorting out their situation.

The UNHCR said South Africa should grant the family refugee status. The Refugee Appeal Board refused this, saying they had refugee status in Zimbabwe. The department then turned the case over to the UNHCR.

The UNHCR arranged shelter for the family for a year with the Jesuits, but when funding ran out the family were on the streets.

The UNHCR did nothing to find other shelter for them, but held resettlement hearings with the aim of possibly resettling the family abroad.

The family signed documents saying they accepted the protection of the UNHCR and had been told the agency would try to settle them in Australia, the US or Canada. This did not transpire and the family slept on the streets.

Then came detention for James Biamungu for four months earlier this year at the Lindela Repatriation Centre and two periods of detention in the Pretoria Central Prison.

His five children, ranging in age from 3 to 11 and none of whom had been to school, had been taken away from him and placed in shelters.

The family are to be reunited this week, but their fate is uncertain as they have no legal right to live in South Africa and the UNHCR has not taken steps to arrange their resettlement. For now, church members are providing shelter and food.

Foreign Editor

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now