Chibok Girls AGREED To Marry Us Before We Slept With Them - Boko Haram Militants

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The man behind the release of the 82 women captured by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has stated that none of the released girls were raped or touched by the feared terrorist group. Only after the girls "agreed" to marry them

Zannah Mustapha talking to the BBC Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani in a

Interview revealed that only after the women "agreed" to marry that the militants had sex with them and that before the kidnapping of the Chibok girls government and their organization was already trying to negotiate peace with Boko Haram.

Mustapha, 57, said that when he arrived for the delivery of the 82 girls released from Boko Haram after three years of captivity, a militant read the names of the girls on a list. One by one, the kidnapped students, now women, lined up outside a forest near the town of Kumshe, on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. Each of them was covered from head to ankle in a dark hijab.

"I went in front of the Red Cross. They [the militants] brought me to the girls," said Mustapha, a lawyer for the state of Borno in northeastern Nigeria. He has been mediating between the government and the militants for the liberation of the Chibok girls and for one end to the Boko Haram insurrection.

In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari told the media that his government was willing to negotiate with Boko Haram's "credible" leaders for the release of the girls. More than 200 of them were kidnapped a year before the city of Chibok, in the northeast of the country, causing worldwide outrage.

The previous attempts had failed, with different groups appearing, each claiming to be the militants in possession of the disappeared schoolboys. It was Mr. Mustapha who managed to convince the Nigerian authorities that this particular group should be taken for what they say, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said.

"He had dealt with them in the past and kept their word," he said. Mr. Mustapha's role as mediator goes back to the founding of the Provisional School of the Islamic Progress Foundation in 2007 to provide free Islamic education to orphans and the poor. When the Boko Haram insurgency broke out in 2009, the school offered admission to the children of soldiers and government officials killed by militants as well as those of state-killed militants. Mr. Mustapha then requested assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which began offering free meals to students. He also encouraged parents to form an association that would reach out to other widows and convince them to send their children to their school. The ICRC soon extended its humanitarian services to mothers, providing them with free food and other items each month.

"This was at a time when the wives of Boko Haram militants were arrested and their houses demolished, so Boko Haram saw me and the ICRC as neutral parties," Mustapha said.

During the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan, former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Maiduguri, the epicenter of the insurgency, to intervene in the escalation of the crisis. He then established a group to discuss peace with Boko Haram. Mr. Mustapha was included in him because of the relationship he had forged with the families of Boko Haram militants. After the Swiss ambassador to Nigeria visited Future Prowess in 2012, he took care of Mr. Mustapha to move to Zurich and Geneva for formal training as a mediator.

"We were already trying to negotiate peace with Boko Haram before the Chibok girls were kidnapped," Mustapha said. The initial bargain was for a batch of 20 Chibok girls to be released. But as a sign of commitment to their relationship, Boko Haram added an extra woman, whom Mr. Mustapha said was his gift to him, hence the number 21.

When they were released in October 2016, she was chosen by Boko Haram to read the names of the other 20 women on a list. Mr. Mustapha said the 21 women were lined up and questioned by Boko Haram militants if they had been raped.

They all said they were not. When a militant approached a woman carrying a baby, she said she was pregnant at the time of her abduction, having married a few weeks earlier.

The girl in her arms, she said, was the daughter of her husband. For some reason, Boko Haram, a group that has cultivated a reputation for brutality, wanted to be known only after the women "agreed" to marry that the militants had sex with them. This process of aligning the women, pointing to each and asking the same question, was repeated in early May, when it is released

But one had an amputated limb and walked with crutches, an injury he suffered, according to what Mustapha told him, during Nigerian military air strikes against Boko Haram. "You all ran." "You're free today," Mustapha said to the 82 women after all the names were called. "Everyone smiled," he said.

He believes his moderate reaction was as a result of the presence of the militants, all armed with firearms, some in army camouflage uniforms and boots. Mr. Mustapha took some pictures with the women. The militants also had their video camera on hand and recorded the event. Finally, ICRC vehicles arrived. "When I told them to go to the cars, they all ran," Mustapha said. "Immediately they entered the vehicles, began to sing of joy. Some shed tears.

Mr. Mustapha has received a number of accolades for his work with Future Prowess School. He was a finalist for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award of 2016, awarded to those who have "saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or of society in general, through sacrifice, selfless service, voluntary or charitable work." . He was also awarded the Aurora 2007 Award, Aurora Modern Day Hero Award, for those whose "life and actions guarantee the safe existence of others." However, he described the delivery of the 82 girls released to the Nigerian government as "the highest point in my life."

"I felt like I've done something worth telling the world that I've done this," he said.