On the day her Tegina Islamiyya School was raided, Hauwa Musa trekked for four days and four nights with other kids bandits herded to their destination on the Niger mountains.
The youngest of the school children had to be lifted on motorcycles to keep pace with the company.
Then She endured a meal of rice with a sachet of water to share with another pupil everyday—for three months.
And, daily, Hauwa got a beating, like others did, until her parents could complete her ransom.
“They threaten to kill us and dump our bodies in the bush if our parents did not pay the ransom,” she said.
The little girl could have been broken. As the bandits released 70 of them, she could have given up on school. Or girl-child education.
But she said ‘no’ to journalists interviewing her during her reunion with her parents, amid flows of tears—tears of joy—in the Niger government house August 28.
She made it clear the months-long nightmare can’t deter her.
“I want to go back to school quickly.”
Following the release of the children, UNESCO has promised to help them through post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) and assist them cope with their studies.