The women and children rescued from Boko Haram camps in Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest are speaking about the horrors they endured, including physical and sexual abuse, forced marriages, and threats of slavery.  But the worst might have been when the militants began stoning some of the girls to death as the Nigerian army drew nearer for a rescue.

Many had been held by Boko Haram for quite some time, and grew hopeful as the crackle of gunfire from the Nigerian military grew louder and some of the terrorists broke ranks and ran away.  But those who stayed were cruel.

As gunshots rang out, “Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and that we should run away with them.  But we said no,” said Lami Musa, a 27-year old who had just given birth to a daughter five-days earlier.  “Then they started stoning us. I held my baby to my stomach and doubled over to protect her.” 

Lami says at least ten abductees died this way in her camp.  But things got even worse, as the fog of war blinded Nigerian forces in their advance.

When the military stormed the camp where we were being held, our captors told us to take cover under trees and shrubs to avoid military shelling,” said 18-year old Binta Abdullahi, who was kidnapped more than a year ago.  “Some women who hid under trees were crushed by military tanks which mowed them down without knowing they were there.”

Others died when they strayed from the Nigerian military’s single-file lines and accidentally stepped on landmines.  With some 700 women and girls rescued from Sambisa in the past week, there are growing hopes that some are the Chibok Girls, 223 kidnapped girls from their boarding school a year ago in an episode that sparked international outrage.  So far, none have been identified .