The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) faction of Boko Haram has freed five officials of a Borno State government ministry who were abducted while travelling between Maiduguri and Monguno last month.
The five civil servants who work with the state ministry for reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement (RRR) had appeared in a video released by their abductors a fortnight ago, begging the state government to come to their rescue.
Insurgents who had earlier threatened to attack staff of international and local non-governmental organisations for working for “the enemies of Islam.” had mistaken the civil servants for NGO workers.
But they had to change their minds when they realised that they were only junior staffers – mostly labourers engaged by the ministry of RRR.
According to reports, the Borno officials regained their freedom after Ms Ummul-Kalthum Abdurrahman, the chief executive officer of Kalthum Foundation for Peace (KFP) intervened.
Ms Kalthum explained that the five abductees regained their freedom without any payment of ransom
“All I know was that both the state government as well as the families of the abductees contacted us to assist,” she said.
“Later, we got a communication from the insurgents through some contacts, and they threatened to take their lives should we not act on time to save them. They informed us that they had agreed to spare their lives but that the amnesty would only last for some days.
“So, with the support of the state government, the DSS and the military, we were able to mobilise and move to the location they cited for us to meet them. They gave a strong warning never to allow any security personnel to come close to the point of receiving the freed abductee.”
Miss Kalthum said they met with the insurgents at a village called Kareto, after Gubio, where the insurgents handed over the five abductees.
“I do not know about where the insurgents had been keeping the abductees, but the Kareto area was just where they agreed to hand over the abductees,” she said.
“When we asked the abductees, they said they had travelled for several hours to get to that location. One of them said they took them far beyond the shores of Lake Chad.”
