Aisha, a kidnap victim, has narrated her traumatic experience of being forced by bandits in Zamfara State to bury her children who perished in captivity.
Daily Trust adds that Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto states remain some of the primary flashpoints of banditry in the Northwestern Nigeria where communities continue to suffer abductions, attacks, relocation and imposition of levies by bandits.
In an interview with DW Hausa, Aisha, who has swollen feet as a result of months of terrible experience, said she and her three children were abducted while riding in a car in Zamfara state.
Suddenly they opened fire and we had to halt our vehicle. “I and my three children were abducted with other passengers and taken into the forest,” she added.
Aisha, the only survivor of the family of four, said she spent six months and five days in captivity, suffering the starvation, dehydration and disease and the sorrow of losing her children.
“I had to bury all the victims of the deaths in captivity, including my own children. “They killed two of my children first and told me to bury them,” she added.
Her infant son eventually died from serious injuries inflicted by the bandits, she said.
“My baby was sleeping by my daughter when he died. The bandits planned to eat his body to their dogs but I begged them to let me bury him. They threw a shovel at me and I buried my son myself.”
“The memories of the abuse my children suffered still haunt me,” Aisha added.
Aisha said: “My children were crying all the time from hunger, thirst, pain and the beating they got from the bandits.
She said she had run away in the darkness.
“It was about midnight when we took a way out of the forest. “We spent three days trying to find our way out of Zamfara bush before eventually reaching a settlement,” she added.
Aisha pleaded for help saying: “I need medical care and food support urgently.”
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