These women escaped the unthinkable horrors of being kidnapped by Boko Haram. Ya Kaka is 19 years old and was kidnapped when she was 15. Hauwa is 18 years old, and was kidnapped when she was 14.
“I was so confused, I was feeling as if where are all the men in this world? Can’t anybody come and save me?” Ya Kaka said.
The women were kidnapped in 2014 in the town of Bama in Borno State, Nigeria. Responsibility for the kidnappings was claimed by Boko Haram, a terrorist organization based in northeast Nigeria.
Hauwa says the group killed her father and stepmother after they refused to marry her off. After experiencing abuse and horror for years, she decided to try and escape when she was nine months pregnant with her first child.
Ya Kaka was abducted along with her five-year-old sister and six-year-old brother. She was separated from them after one night together and still doesn’t know where they are to this day. She was married to one of the insurgents, but still experienced rape and abuse from other group members. She and three other abductees eventually resolved to run away.
Thousands of young girls are displaced because of Boko Haram and many don’t have access to any form of support.
“They are willing to go to school, but nobody helps them. They wake up in the morning, they don’t know where to go or find what to eat,” Ya Kaka said. “The world needs to know their stories.”
The women said they were ready to tell their story in March of 2018. They were brought to the United States by Too Young to Wed, an organization that advocates against child marriage.
The U.S. House and Senate plans to vote a bipartisan resolution condemning Boko Haram in early 2019. The resolution would put pressure on U.S. and Nigerian governments.
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