‘How I Escaped from Terrorists Enclave’

By Emmanuel Kwada

“We were all sleeping when they came to the school,” recalled Sa’a, a Chibok schoolgirl who survived the infamous Boko Haram abduction on April 14, 2014. The militants stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, around 11:30 p.m., disguised in military uniforms, firing guns and shouting through the town before infiltrating the campus.

Terrified and confused, the girls gathered outside their hostels, initially mistaking the intruders for soldiers sent to protect them. But the nightmare unfolded as Boko Haram began interrogating them with three chilling questions: “Where is the cement block print machine?”, an item they sought to loot; “Where are the boys?”, unaware that male students did not board overnight; and “Where are the militaries that are watching us at the school?”, highlighting the absent security who had departed after afternoon duties during exams.

Chibok-Girls in Boko haram enclave

A fourth demand followed: “Where is the store where our food is kept?” Two girls were forced to guide them, and the insurgents loaded provisions onto a truck before setting the school ablaze, destroying books, clothes, and everything in sight.

Herded like cattle, the 276 girls were threatened with death if they resisted boarding a long truck. “Anyone who doesn’t want to enter the truck, they should come out and we should kill them,” Sa’a recounted. Crammed inside, some sitting on laps, three girls who couldn’t fit; two Christians and one Muslim, faced faith-based questioning.

I’d rather die so my parents have my corpse than go with Boko Haram because I don’t know where I’m going.

A militant pointed a gun at one Christian girl, intent on killing her, but was overruled; the trio was ordered to run home without looking back, under penalty of being shot. As the convoy plunged into the dark forest, Sa’a seized her chance. “I’d rather die so my parents have my corpse than go with Boko Haram because I don’t know where I’m going,” she decided.

Jumping from the truck with a friend, they hid in the bushes, her companion injuring her leg. They spent the night in the forest, and the next morning, Sa’a found a shepherd who guided them to safety.

Sa’a’s harrowing escape, shared in a 2015 BBC interview facilitated by Nigerian human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, echoes the enduring trauma of that night and the ideological fury of Boko Haram, whose name translates to “Western education is evil.”

Western education is evil.

Ogebe, who helped relocate Sa’a and nine other escaped girls to the United States for safe education, explained the group’s aims: destroying schools, churches, and Western influences in pursuit of jihad.

“They’ve destroyed over 900 schools, killed more than 300 teachers and 500 students, and razed 700 churches,” he noted, linking them to global networks like ISIS and dismissing poverty as the sole driver given Nigeria’s oil wealth.

Despite international outcry, including Michelle Obama’s #BringBackOurGirls campaign, Ogebe criticized the delayed global response, with the UN designating Boko Haram terrorists only post-abduction.

Now safe in the U.S. but haunted by memories, Sa’a worried for her family in unsafe Borno and her captive schoolmates: “I really want my friends to come back… I want the United Nations to help and bring back the girls.”

Boko Haram with the abducted aid workers in a file photo

Her plea remains urgent as Nigeria’s school safety crisis surges in 2025, with over 2,496 students have been abducted and at least 180 killed across 92 recorded attacks on educational institutions since 2014.

The alarming data, spanning incidents across Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Niger, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kebbi, and Kogi states, underscores the country’s deepening security challenges, prompting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday to declare a national security emergency, just a day after opposition critics urged him to resign if “overwhelmed” by the crisis.

Mass abductions of schoolchildren, once associated primarily with Boko Haram’s insurgency in the North East have resurfaced with renewed ferocity in 2025, now driven mainly by heavily armed bandit groups operating in some of Nigeria’s most ‘impenetrable’ forests. The tactic has not only returned but has grown more coordinated, more violent, and more financially motivated than at any point since the Chibok and Dapchi kidnappings.

Anyone who doesn’t want to enter the truck, they should come out and we should kill them.

For instance, in November 2025 alone, gunmen abducted over 350 students and staff from a government secondary school in Kebbi and also a Catholic school in Niger State on November 21, marking one of the worst mass kidnappings in recent years.

The crisis began its international ascent in April 2014, when Boko Haram militants stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, abducting 276 girls. The attack ignited the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign and remains one of the defining symbols of extremist violence in West Africa.

To this day, 82 of those girls are still in captivity, a stark reminder of the lingering trauma and unresolved cases. Following Chibok, the 2018 Dapchi abduction saw 110 girls taken from the Government Girls Science and Technical College in Yobe State, with 104 eventually released, five dying in captivity, and one, Leah Sharibu, remaining held due to her refusal to renounce her faith (Christianity).

Earlier investigations by THE INSIGHT identified several of Nigeria’s most dangerous forests now serving as safe havens and operational bases for these criminal networks. These forests, spread across the North West and North Central regions, form a vast and often interconnected geography of lawlessness that stretches across state borders, complicating rescue operations.

State by state breakdown of kidnapped students

Beyond the thousands kidnapped, at least 180 children have been killed, nearly 90 injured, and around 60 staff members abducted in school-related attacks between 2014 and 2022 alone.

Schools Forced to Close as Fear Rises

In states like Katsina and across the North West, dozens of schools remain shuttered due to persistent insecurity. Tens of thousands of children have been forced out of classrooms, deepening the country’s education deficit and undermining development efforts.

Security experts report a marked shift over the years:
Boko Haram’s ideologically driven kidnappings have given way to profit-motivated abductions by heavily armed criminal gangs, some operating with the same level of militancy and brutality.

Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer who helped relocate Sa’a and other survivors to the U.S., describes the crisis as “one of the most understated genocides on the planet today.”

He noted that Boko Haram, once known as the “Nigerian Taliban,” has:

• Destroyed over 900 schools
• Killed more than 300 teachers
• Killed over 500 students
• Destroyed 700+ churches
• Killed civilians from over 15 countries

Ogebe rejected the notion that Boko Haram’s rise is rooted purely in poverty:

“The ideology behind Boko Haram is the same as ISIS. These groups are interlinked, wealthy, and globally connected. This is not about poverty—it is about extremism.”

International Response Still ‘Disappointing’

Despite global outrage after Chibok, Ogebe argues that international action has remained sluggish. The United Nations, for example, did not formally designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization until after the mass abduction—three years after the group bombed the UN headquarters in Abuja.

Coverage of simultaneous massacres in Nigeria continues to pale in comparison to attacks elsewhere, he said.

We want to study. We want to go home. We want safety. Please, bring back our girls.

Tinubu Declares National Security Emergency

The Nigerian government, grappling with renewed kidnappings in several states, has faced escalating criticism in recent weeks. On Wednesday, opposition figures accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of being “overwhelmed,” calling for his resignation if he could not stop the violence or justify negotiations with bandits.

In response, Tinubu on Thursday declared a national security emergency, promising expanded military operations and new security technology deployments. The presidency stated that the government “will no longer tolerate the targeting of Nigeria’s children.” Yet barely a day after the announcement, more than 25 farmers were abducted by bandits in a Niger State community—underscoring the depth of the crisis.

“We want to study. We want to go home. We want safety. Please, bring back our girls.”

As Nigeria enters another year of unrelenting insecurity, the nation—and the world—must confront a difficult question: Will this crisis continue to be measured in hashtags and headlines, or in real, sustained action to protect the country’s most vulnerable?

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