by Olatunji Saliu
ABUJA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- On a quiet May morning, 15-year-old Bello Hassan focused entirely on the continuous assessment test paper in the Oriire Local Government Area of Nigeria's southwestern state of Oyo, when gunmen breached the peace of his school.
Hassan and his classmates and teachers were forced out at gunpoint, marking the beginning of a harrowing 56-day captivity until their rescue on July 10. The pupils and teachers were abducted from three schools across Ahoro-Esiele and Yawota communities in the Oriire area.
Shortly after their subsequent discharge from the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital in Ogbomoso, a city in Oyo, Hassan spoke to reporters with a voice carrying the weight of an ordeal no child should ever endure, while recounting the terrifying journey into the den of Nigeria's ruthless kidnapping gangs and terror groups.
"When I was in captivity, I was scared," he recalled. "I was scared that my parents were at home and there was nobody to save me."
What followed was relentless physical and emotional suffering. The abductors, speaking English and local languages including Hausa, pushed the frightened children deeper into the forest in a day-long trek.
They walked nonstop under a scorching sun until dusk, arriving at a makeshift camp around 7:00 p.m. local time. It was only the first stop in a relentless cycle of relocation designed by the terrorists to evade tracking by security forces.
Throughout the 56-day captivity, Hassan said there was no permanent shelter, no place of safety. For weeks, they were exhaustively shuffled from one makeshift camp to another, deep within the forest, where survival was reduced to its barest, most primitive form.
"We lived under trees," the boy said, describing the raw exposure to nature and harsh weather conditions. "Whenever rain was about to fall, they covered us with nylon because we stayed under the tree."
According to him, food was sparse and basic in the kidnappers' den. Initially, the abductors ordered the female and older victims to prepare meals. Later, the kidnappers took over the cooking duties themselves, serving simple portions of rice to keep their hostages alive.
Though the gunmen spared the children from direct physical violence, they subjected them to psychological agony and forced them to watch their school teachers endure physical brutality. "The gunmen did not beat us, but only flogged our teachers. They did not allow us to play around or do whatever we liked," Hassan said.
The 56-day ordeal was marked by the tragic loss of two teachers, who were brutally killed during the period. Hassan said he did not witness the execution, as "they were killed in another place."
On July 10, the coordinated and intelligence-led operation by the Nigerian government forces brought an end to the harrowing abduction, rescuing Hassan and 43 other pupils and teachers from the forest.
Nigerian authorities identified the attackers as displaced members of the Boko Haram terrorist group. Defense Minister Christopher Musa said the terrorists demanded the release of several detained commanders in exchange for the hostages, a demand the government publicly rejected.
For several years, the Nigerian government has vowed to intensify efforts in dealing with issues of kidnapping and disruption of schools by criminals across the country, saying it would no longer tolerate disruption of the nation's educational system by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers.
Despite his recent harrowing experience in the kidnappers' den, Hassan is not deterred in his determination to acquire an education, saying the gunmen would not steal his future.
"Since my return, I am not afraid," he said. "I will return to school in the area."
