NEMA Receives Women And Children Rescued From Sambisa Forest

Women and children rescued from the Boko Haram sect have been handed over to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) by the Nigerian Army in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

The agency, which now takes full responsibility of the first batch released within days after the army found hundreds of other hostages, have given assurance that the  rescued persons would be taken care of under tight security.

Many of the children looked severely malnourished while some of the women held in captivity for almost 12 months were unable to walk nor talk audibly on arrival.

Fourteen trucks from the Nigerian Army fully loaded with 275 women and children, with hunger, uncertainty and deep sorrow clearly written on their faces, arrived in Yola at about 6.30pm local time. They disembark to meet caretakers of NEMA.

Most of the rescued persons handed over to the agency by the Commander, 23 Armoured Brigade, Aba Popoola, were children.

The NEMA officials immediately began documentation, as cries of malnourished children rend the air.

Sixty-nine women and 206 children were each given a cup of tea and bread to quell hunger and thirst, as they were moved to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp.

A week old baby delivered in Sambisa Forest was among 21 other injured people instantly taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola for treatment.

After the rescued persons were handed over to the agency, it took several hours into the night to fully sort them out.

This is the first batch of rescued women and children that the military has handed over to NEMA.

NEMA IDP Co-ordinator, Sahad Bello, said the agency would ensure they would be given the right treatment they deserved as Nigeria.

The clearly traumatised victims would in the days ahead undergo intense trauma counselling and social training to help them bounce back to their normal life before the Sambisa abduction.