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A UNICEF nurse, kidnapped six years ago by jihadists in northeastern Nigeria, has regained freedom after escaping, the Nigerian army announced Friday. During her captivity, she was twice forced to marry fighters.
Alice Loksha was kidnapped on March 1, 2018, during a jihadist attack on the town of Rann, in the far northeast of the country, with two midwives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Three other aid workers and eight Nigerien soldiers were killed in the attack. The two kidnapped midwives, Hauwa Liman and Saifura Khorsa, were executed after a few months of detention.
Indeed, General Kenneth Chigbu explained during a press briefing in Maiduguri that Loksha had been forced to marry a terrorist leader, Abu Umar, with whom she had a son. After the death of Abu Umar in 2022, she had to marry another commander of ISWAP (Daesh branch in West Africa).
Alice Loksha managed to escape on October 24 and joined soldiers five days later, according to the Nigerian army. A UN source indicated that discussions were underway to resolve the “complications” linked to her family situation, her husband having remarried after believing her to be dead.
Since the emergence of Boko Haram around fifteen years ago, kidnappings, particularly of young girls, have become frequent. The conflict has left around 40,000 dead and two million displaced, according to the United Nations.
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