“I have forgiven the terrorists”

Rebeca (24), a Nigerian woman, was abducted by Boko Haram and suffered for two years under the regime of the Islamic terrorist group.

She, like thousands of women and teenagers, was kidnapped by the militia that has spread terror in northern Nigeria and other border countries in recent years.

KIDNAPPING

Rebeca recalls that she fled from her home in Baga, in the north of the country, when the terrorists arrived. She went out with her husband Bitrus and his two sons: Zechariah (3) and Jonathan (1).

She was pregnant with her third child. They ran together, but she could not follow her husband. Then, the marriage decided to separate. 

Boko Haram murders the men and kidnaps the women, so Bitrus ran away and Rebeca and her children were caught by the terrorists. They took her, along with the rest of Christian women, from Maiduguri to a training camp.

There they had to work from sunrise to sunset and became sex slaves of the terrorists.

REFUSE TO DENY CHRIST

Rebecca radically refused to surrender her body and to deny her Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that, the terrorists beat her and broke her teeth.

That continued for months, up to the two years of her abduction. She lost the son she was expecting.

The physical and psychological pressure was huge. They forced her to deny Jesus and recite the Quran five times a day.

Every time she bent down on her knees to Mecca, she prayed in her heart: "In the name of Jesus" and "I love you, Lord Jesus."

SHE LOST ALMOST EVERYTHING

The men of Boko Haram forced her to have intercourse and as she resisted with all her might, they snatched her youngest son, Jonathan, and threw him into Lake Chad where he died drowned.

She was broken, thinking that maybe she was widowed, with the emptiness of having lost a child and with the news of the murder of her oldest son. However, her faith kept her incorruptible and unwavering.

Finally, Rebeca was raped and got pregnant. She gave birth alone to the son of a militiaman of Boko Haram.

COMING BACK HOME

Although she was resisting that hell, she wanted to flee and one day she saw the possibility of escape. She ran away with his son and the newborn. She was lost for weeks, disoriented and without food.

Finally she managed to reach the village and met her husband again.

RESTORATION

Thanks to the help of their community and the local church, the couple has been able to be together again. Her husband, Bitrus has been able to accept the son who was born from Rebekah's rape.

Now they live in a displaced camp in Maiduguri along with 25 other families.

I HAVE FORGIVEN THE TERRORISTS”

“I have forgiven the terrorists”, Rebecca said after participating in the presentation of the 'Free from Terror' campaign of the foundation “Aid to the Church in Need”, which aims to support the victims of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.

In the last eight years, terrible violence has been the hallmark of the Islamist Boko Haram, founded in 2002 in northeastern Nigeria by religious leader Mohamed Yusuf. Its objective: the establishment of a caliphate in the poorest area of Nigeria. The result: a long campaign of assaults, kidnappings and attacks on the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, which has killed 20,000 to 30,000 people and forced more than two million to flee their homes.