Published: 18:46 BST, 30 August 2026 | Updated: 14:28 BST, 31 August 2026
It seemed like an ordinary day for 16-year-old Hannah – instead it marked the start of a months-long nightmare that would see her abducted, gang-raped and held captive as a sex slave.
Yet even worse was still to come – her Boko Haram captors would strap a bomb to her body and ordered her to carry out a suicide attack.
Remarkably, in a twist of fate that sounds more like a Hollywood script than real life, Hannah (not her real name) managed to escape. Now, she has chosen to tell the Daily Mail her extraordinary story of survival.
In November 2013, Hannah's life was turned upside down when Boko Haram militants stormed her village in Chibok, north-east Nigeria.
In a bid to escape, she jumped into the first car that was willing to take her as a passenger, ignoring the cautionary shakes of the heads of fellow villagers.
She had unknowingly walked straight into the hands of the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, who had wreaked terror on her country for decades. Before Hannah realised, her hands were quickly tied and her eyes blindfolded as she was driven into the African bush.
At their camp, she and other women were auctioned off to Boko Haram militants to be 'married'. Hannah defiantly refused to wed her new 'owner' and was thrown into a makeshift cell built from thorn-covered branches as punishment.
'There was another girl with me. We were told marriage is our freedom,' she recalled. 'If we agreed to marry, then we could leave. If not, we would stay in the cell.'
Survivors of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram stand together in Nigeria, after months of torment
After being starved and without water for three days, Hannah eventually followed the advice of an elderly woman she now credits with saving her life: do as the fighters say, keep the peace and wait for an opportunity to escape.
The women were eventually punished with nine lashes from a cane for their defiance before being separated, never to see each other again.
While held captive for two more days, Hannah's fear further grew when the elderly woman returned, visibly terrified.
'I had no idea what they said to her, but the woman came back and told me that I should just lie down and rest,' she described.
'I saw the woman was telling me one thing but she was full of fear. I knew something was wrong in the woman's reaction, but she was telling me everything is okay. I should just rest.'
