She was 14 when they took her. She is free at 26.
After 12 and a half years in Boko Haram captivity, Jinkai Yama — one of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls abducted from their dormitory in April 2014 — has escaped. She walked out of the forest with two children born from forced marriages to eight different terrorists.
Another girl escaped with her, also with children in her arms.
The world thought they were gone forever. They never stopped trying to come home.
The stunning escape was disclosed by US-based human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, who has spent a decade fighting for the Chibok girls.
“Jinkai Yama’s escape 12 and a half years after the 2014 atrocity is a triumph of hope and the human spirit over terror, evil and despair,” Ogebe said in an email on November 9.
—Married To Eight Fighters—
Yama’s testimony is harrowing. She told rescuers she was passed between fighters — married to eight Boko Haram terrorists in 12 years. Two children, fathered in captivity, are all she has to show for a stolen childhood.
She identified Gwoza, Borno State — still a stronghold of the insurgency — as where her last “husband” is.
And yet, after all that horror, one thought kept her alive: _Mama. Papa. Are you alive?_
Ogebe said Yama has not yet spoken to her family. She does not know if her parents survived the 12 years she was gone. But she kept asking about them. She wants their permission to go back to school.
“Jinkai’s escape debunks spurious claims that the girls do not wish to return,” Ogebe said. “The very fact that Jinkai and others are still escaping a dozen years later disproves claims that they never wanted to return.”
—A Tale Of Two Destinies—
Her escape comes just days after another Chibok girl, Deborah Ishaya — one of those Ogebe relocated to America — got married in the United States.
Ishaya escaped early. She became the first Chibok girl to graduate from an American high school in 2017, with honours, and went on to university. Four of the girls Ogebe took to the US have now earned degrees, some Masters, and have married on their own terms.
Same abduction. Two completely different lives. One given a chance. The other forced to survive eight forced marriages.
Ogebe also used the moment to slam the narrative in the 2023 book _The Sisterhood_, which claimed the CIA found 30 girls in Sambisa but some chose to stay because they had children for fighters. He called it false — pointing out that the largest recoveries were 21 girls in 2016 and 82 in 2017, never 30 at once.
No girl chose this. Jinkai proves it.
After 4,500 days in darkness, she chose freedom. She chose to walk. With two babies strapped to the future she still believes she can have.
The Nigerian Army facilitated her recovery. Her family waits.
The #BringBackOurGirls chant that shook the world in 2014 is no longer a hashtag. Today, it is a 26-year-old mother walking home.
