A woman took an extreme measure to save her then 12-year-old daughter, from being abducted by Boko Haram members and forced into early marriage.
The desperate action of 47-year old Zainabu Hamayaji(pictured) was published by The Guardian.
The report said it all started one morning in August 2014 when she pushed her daughter, Hassanna, into a deep ditch in the backyard to save her from being becoming a child bride to the Boko Haram foot soldiers who had just invaded their hometown of Madagali in Adamawa State.
It said Zainabu’s husband was killed by the dreaded Islamic sect while two of her children ran out of the town and may have been killed by the dreaded group.
However, she saved two of her children by faking madness, urinating on herself and defecating on her clothes for nine months.
Her insanity was initially doubted by the terrorists but with time they believed she was truly mad and spared her life and that of her two children.
“They didn’t believe me so they came every day. I continued to strip myself naked, unplait my hair, roll in trash, put shit on my hair to make it seem like I was really mad.
“They asked my two children if I was okay because they kept doubting me. My children would cry as they were talking and the terrorists became afraid of hurting a mad woman so they don’t have a curse on their heads.
“They believed that if they killed a madwoman or took her child, their military operations would fail. One of them reminded the others about how their people killed a mad woman on another raid and her curse affected them badly,” Zainabu was quoted by the paper as saying.
