How I Escaped From Boko Haram

They asked me about my parents. Then they killed them in front of me. That is how Boko Haram operates. They first take out your parents so you have no one else to fall back to.”
This is the haunting account given by Babagana, 16-year-old boy that Boko Haram abducted from his home in Gamboru, Borno State, in May 2014.
After killing his parents, and abducting him, he was forced to join the Boko Haram insurgents, Daily Beast reports.

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“They killed people for no reason…I just couldn’t stand the horror. It made me terribly scared. They killed anyone who didn’t heed to their instructions,” he told me. “Girls were often subjected to sexual abuse. Anyone who proved stubborn was shot dead.
I lost my mind with all that I saw I thought if I didn’t find a way of escaping, sooner rather than later, it would be my turn,” he said.

Babagana eventually made it back to Gamboru, but found himself ostracized by his kinsmen, who no longer trusted him. Unable to depend on the community for protection, Babagana again went on the move, traveling to from one village to the other across northern Borno and many times narrowly avoiding recapture as militants kept invading new communities. He finally made it to a displacement camp in Maiduguri, a place he now calls home.