A Boko Haram survivor, Fayina Akilawus, has recounted the harrowing four years she spent in the captivity of the terrorist group, detailing repeated attempts to force her and other Christian captives to convert to Islam, the punishment they suffered for refusing, and how she eventually escaped on her fifth attempt.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News, Akilawus revealed that captives who rejected conversion were subjected to enslavement under the group’s rules.
“They wanted us to convert to Islam and we said no, we will not convert,” she said. “It is their own law that if you do not convert, you become a slave.”
According to her, refusing conversion meant being assigned to forced labour, including domestic chores and physically demanding tasks.
“If we don’t convert, we’ll still be Christians but we’ll be their slaves. We were carrying wood, fetching water and doing house chores for them,” she explained.
Akilawus said Boko Haram members regularly came to preach to the captives, presenting conversion as a path to becoming “better people.” She noted that the captives resisted for nine months before the militants began separating them and distributing them to commanders’ homes as personal slaves.
Recounting her first escape attempt, she said it happened on the very night she arrived at the camp.
“That Saturday night around 7pm, me and Aunty [Jumat] tried to escape. We walked throughout the night till morning,” she said.
However, the attempt failed after they mistook the cries of a baby for those of Fulani cattle rearers, unaware that Boko Haram fighters lived with their families.
“We greeted them and entered, not knowing who they were. When they saw us, they started shouting because our dressing was different,” she recalled.
The two women were recaptured and forced to trek back to the camp, where they were brutally beaten.
“They beat the hell out of us,” she said.
Despite several failed attempts, Akilawus said she never lost hope. After four years in captivity, she finally succeeded in escaping on her fifth attempt, with help from a Fulani woman who sold local drinks—kunu and nunu—to people around the camp.
“With God, all things are possible. We prayed over it, and God had mercy on us,” she said.
She explained that the woman initially refused to help out of fear for her life but later agreed after persistent pleas.
“She was afraid they would kill her, but I kept disturbing her until she finally helped me escape,” Akilawus said.
Her account adds to growing testimonies from survivors highlighting the brutality of Boko Haram’s operations, particularly against religious minorities, and the immense risks faced by those who attempt to flee the group’s strongholds.
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