On 1 March 2018, Islamic militants attacked a displacement camp in Borno state. As a result of the attack, three UNICEF workers were killed, along with eight soldiers. During the attack, a Christian woman named Alice Loksha Ngaddah, who worked as a nurse in the camp, was taken captive – along with two Muslim midwives, Saifura Khorsa and Hauwa Liman. Having been declared “apostates” by their captors merely for working with the Red Cross, the two midwives were killed a few months later.
The militants responsible stated at the time that they would be holding Alice, along with a Christian student named Leah Sharibu (whom they had captured only ten days earlier), as “slaves for life”.
For more than six years, Alice had patiently waited for the ideal opportunity to safely escape her abductors. During that time, she gave birth to a son who is now three years old. When the chance to flee finally arrived on 24 October, Alice, along with her young son and another abductee, Fayina Ali Akilwus, quietly slipped away from the militants’ camp.
After travelling for more than three days, the weary escapees safely arrived at a military outpost in northeastern Nigeria. As Alice and Fayina neared their destination, they broke out in praises to Jesus, shouting, “We are really saved!” Then, following their arrival at the outpost, they expressed gratitude to God for the military, asking Him to further strengthen Nigeria’s governing authorities and give them victory over the plight of terrorism in their country.
Reportedly, the two women have since been transferred to the Borno state government for rehabilitation. At the time of her kidnapping in 2018, Alice was a married mother of two children. Her husband, however, believing that she had been killed by the abductors, has since remarried.
“Alice and her children will need ongoing emotional, physical and spiritual support if she is to be integrated back into society,” reports a local trauma care worker.
Unfortunately, the violence and resulting atrocities of persecution continue to erupt in many areas of Nigeria where Christians have frequently been kidnapped and/or killed.
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