A 15 year old Deborah Peter, a Chibok indigene who now resides in
Virginia, USA, was at the Capitol Hill, D.C yesterday May 21st, where
she narrated her experience in the hands of Boko Haram. Deborah was at
the US congress in her capacity as a Boko haram survivor, to lend her
voice to the #bringbackourgirls campaign, as members of the congress
debated on how to effectively win the war against the radical Islamic
sect that abducted over 200 girls in Chibok on April 14th.
Deborah told the story of how her father, a
Christian pastor who had been asked to deny his faith and her brother
were both killed in a singular attack on the evening of Dec 22 2011 by
three members of Boko haram. She said the men shot her dad 3 times on
the chest and as they deliberated on whether to kill her brother, her
dad breathed his last when he heard gun shots fired at his son, Caleb.
Deborah
said she was then asked her to lie in between their corpses. She laid
there until the next morning when she was rescued by a local Pastor who
paid for her to be transported out of the region. Sadly, the pastor who
assisted her was also killed in 2013 by the sect men.
During her presentation, Deborah held up a paper sign reading “#BringBackMySisters” for video cameras and photographers.
“I decided to tell the world my story when the Chibok girls were taken
because everyone needs to know how horrible Boko Haram is. They kill
innocent people who never hurt them. I want the world to understand what
happened to me. I hope the kidnapped Chibok girls will take courage
from my story, and know more of what God says, and know what it means to
stand strong in the face of bad people.” she said
Deborah was
asked to describe how she felt about Boko Haram after all she had been
through and she replied "It’s a hard question. I think they’re bad. I
can’t judge them. The Bible said do not judge.”
