![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2019\/12\/IMG_0887-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2019\/12\/IMG_2361-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2019\/12\/LKOU3018-1-1024x767.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nMarkus Gamache introduced us to Gambo Muhammed in Maiduguri. He is a young man with a passion to see peace restored to his home in northeast Nigeria\u2019s largest city. Maiduguri is infamously known as the birthplace of Boko Haram. Over the last ten years, these extremists have killed thousands of innocent Nigerians and chased millions more from their traditional homelands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gambo is associated with a group of youths in Maiduguri that\nare seeking peace. He is a tireless advocate of peace, representing the people\nin his city who are tired of the violence and want to live a normal life again.\nHe told us that many people, both Christian and Muslim have grown tired of the\nkilling and fear that has gripped his city and the surrounding countryside. The\ncity of Maiduguri has become a haven for displaced people. Before the\ninsurgency, Maiduguri\u2019s population was somewhere around 2 million. But because\nof the danger outside the city – from Lake Chad in the north to the Cameroon\nboarder in the east to the Sambisa Forrest to the west and Madagali in the\nsouth, 7 million people now make Maiduguri their home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gambo made himself known in his city in 2015. He was invited\nto speak at the Swiss Embassy before numerous dignitaries and ambassadors. His\ntopic was, \u201cHow to end the crisis with Boko Haram.\u201d He challenged those present\nand demonstrated his passion to see peace restored to the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He listed some of the steps he advocated at this influential\nmeeting. Number one was to restore trust between the security forces and the\ncitizens of Maiduguri. This could be accomplished, he said, by creating\nhumanitarian relief for countless people struggling to survive in Maiduguri. He\nsuggested that the bad elements that had infiltrated the camps throughout the\ncity be eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Number two was to provide skills acquisition training for the\ndisplaced and the youth of the city. This sounds basic but for people who know\nnothing but subsistence farming, acquiring an alternate skill to support\nthemselves and their family is a huge step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Number three, according to this energetic Muslim, was to take\nsteps to curb drug abuse in the youth population. It was through the use of\ndrugs that Boko Haram had attracted many young men to come into the ranks of\nthe extremist cult of Boko Haram. The breakdown of opportunities for young\npeople and the allure of drugs served as the main recruiting tool for Boko\nHaram membership. Gambo told me of the frustration that led many of his friends\nto follow Boko Haram\u2019s leaders down the path of personal destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gambo, wise beyond his years, chose the alternative path of\npeace. What a breath of fresh air he was to us when we encountered him in the\nbustling, crowded city of Maiduguri, Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2019\/12\/IMG_0930-1-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2019\/12\/IMG_2331-1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n3 Stories of Escape from the Boko Harm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ladi, Charity and Safiratu are three strong young women.\nThey were taken captive by the Boko Haram sometime in 2014. These women along\nwith many other men and children have been kept in villages around Ngoshe and\nGwoza where the Boko Haram still controls the area. (Many remain in captivity.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conditions under captivity are terrible; food scarcity,\nforced labor, forced marriage, mistreatment, and forced Islamization. But\nsomehow each of these three women survived and had the courage to attempt an\nescape from this horrific captivity. Even more amazing is the fact that these\nwomen did not lose their faith in Jesus Christ. The women were forced to dress\nin Muslim attire wearing a hajib in public and they were forced to participate\nin the daily Muslim prayers. However, in private they prayed to their God and worshiped\nJesus in their hearts. The terrible conditions, rumors of the escape of others,\nand their faith gave them the courage to escape. Anything would be better than\nthe life they had as prisoners. In 2018, they each snuck away in the night and\nclimbed down the mountain to freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are their stories\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ladi is a young, single woman who had her whole life ahead\nof her. Her future was forever changed when she was abducted by the Boko Haram.\nShe was forced into \u201cmarriage\u201d and had a baby by her Boko Haram husband. She\nescaped down the mountain with her baby and ran to her family at the Maiduguri\nIDP camp. Yes, she is no longer in captivity, but she faces many difficulties\nand wonders what will become of her. Will anyone agree to marry her; will a\nhusband take her child as his own? Will her child always have the stigma of a\nBoko baby? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charity is a young, married woman, who now has a Boko Haram\nchild. After her escape, she went to the camp in Maiduguri to be reunited with\nher husband who was an IDP there. At first, her husband did not want to take\nher back as his wife because of her forced Boko Haram marriage. But Charity did\nnot give up, she kept begging him to take her back; both her and her child.\nFinally, after some counseling, the husband, received her again as his wife. Today,\nthe couple has been living together as husband and wife for more than a year\nand they have three-month-old twins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Safiratu is another married woman who escaped from the Boko\nHaram with her baby and ended up at the IDP camp. She too tried to reconcile\nwith her husband. Her story differs from Charity in that her husband would not\ntake her back no matter how hard she tried. Since she was not welcomed by her\nhusband; life became too difficult in the camp. With the help of others,\nSafiratu moved to a town near the EYN headquarters where she is supported by\nher brother and assisted by EYN women\u2019s ministry. What will become of her and\nher child? Will there ever be reconciliation between her and her husband? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pray for all those who have escaped from the Boko Haram and\nfor those who remain captive. <\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\t\t\t\tWhile in Maiduguri recently, Carl and Roxane Hill visited various Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps, drove through the city, toured the largest EYN church and conducted some interviews. Read the interviews with a young peace activist and several women who escaped from Boko Haram captivity.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[140,370,419,594,741,813,882],"class_list":["post-6969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nigeria","tag-boko-haram-insurgency","tag-ekklesiyar-yanuwa-a-nigeria","tag-eyn","tag-idp-camps","tag-miaduguri","tag-nigeria","tag-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}