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Woman Gives Birth In Open As Violence Escalates Despite 24-Hour Curfew In Plateau
She told me where she saw him but pleaded that I had to be patient because he had been killed
Jos, Plateau State– Amidst tension and violence, a woman simply identified as Zainab delivered a baby boy in the open in Mangu town of Plateau State as killings and destruction of properties continued despite the 24-hour curfew placed in the local government area.
Daily Trust reports that Zainab, who was heavily pregnant when the killings started, narrated how she was frightened by the deafening sounds of guns and the sight of people being killed, only to suddenly feel a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. The 25-year-old mother of two said out of shock, her baby slipped out of her while she was standing in the open, oblivious of what to do.
“When I noticed that the baby was coming out, I knelt immediately to ensure the baby was safely delivered. There was no medical assistance, sterilized equipment, or conducive atmosphere. It was a neighbour who stopped to assist me as everyone else fled. There was no hospital nearby. Even right now, we can’t take the baby to hospital due to the curfew and my stomach has been hurting badly.
“Right now (Wednesday afternoon) there are gunshots everywhere and as for the baby, we haven’t even bathed him since we can’t even get hot water. I also haven’t taken hot water myself,” she narrated to one of our reporters via a phone call.
As for my other children, I don’t know where they are; I don’t even know where my husband is,” she said
Shafa’atu, the only neighbour who stood back to help deliver Zainab’s baby also recounted what happened.
“It was in the process of running with the five orphans in my care that I saw her on the streets in a bad situation and everyone was running away. So, I decided to go and help her. I still don’t know the whereabouts of my husband and one of the orphans in my care,” she said.
Another woman, Maryam, narrated how she discovered the decapitated body of her husband.
“I could not (run?) because I had been sick for the past four months. But after fleeing to a seemingly safe place, we heard that our house was burnt, and my shop and belongings I bought in preparation for my son’s wedding worth millions of naira were burnt. So, I became worried about my kids and started calling my husband’s phone to know where he was. The phone kept ringing and no one to pick and thereafter, it was switched off.
When I finally saw my kids, they also said they were looking for their dad. Then we met a woman who asked if I saw my husband, and she told me where she saw him but pleaded that I had to be patient because he had been killed,” she said. Husseina Salihu Maisaje, the sister of Maryam’s husband, also corroborated Maryam’s version of how they discovered that her brother was killed, and that they found his decapitated body burnt.
She said most of the women who escaped Tuesday’s attacks were looking for their children.
