With grim determination, two Chibok schoolgirls escaped from the Sambisa Forest camp of their Boko Haram captors after eight years as wives of top commanders of the deadly terrorists.

After their abduction from the dormitory of the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), in Chibok, Borno State along with 276 others on April 14, 2014, Mary Dauda and Hauwa Joseph were married off to members of the deadly sect.

Yesterday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, they recounted their ordeal in the camp, and how they fled, risking their lives, and landed in the hands of troops, who rescued them.

After their abduction, the schoolgirls were shared out into camps where they became spouses of terrorists.

Mary, who was abducted at 18, is now 26 and mother of one. Hauwa is now 24.

The two ladies said more than 20 of their schoolmates are still in Gazuwa camp in Sambisa Forest.

Gazuwa camp is the acclaimed headquarters of the Boko Haram faction, formerly known as Gabchari, Mantari and Mallum Masari, located about nine kilometres to Bama Local Government Area of Borno.

Interacting with reporters at the Command and Control Centre, Maimalari Cantonment, in Maiduguri, Marry, said she could still vividly recall her compulsory marriage eight years ago.

She narrated how she walked through the deadly forest for many days before she found help.

Like the others conscripted by the militants, she had been told that she would be hunted down and killed if she deserted.

According to a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, Mary said: “I took excuse from Malam Ahmed, that I will be visiting my relative from Chibok in Ngoshe town and he allowed me to go for one week. That was when I began my journey for freedom.

Credit: The Nation