<i>[solemn music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[woman speaking native language]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[tense music]</i> - [speaking native language] - [speaking native language] <i>[women speaking native language]</i> - You had outsmarted Boko Haram. How did you have the courage to do that? <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[poignant music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[somber music]</i> <i>DIONNE: This city in northeastern Nigeria</i> <i>is home to about 2 million people.</i> <i>It’s known for its universities,</i> <i>its soccer team, and one of the biggest markets</i> <i>in the region.</i> <i>It’s also the birthplace of Boko Haram.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>You probably remember Boko Haram from this.</i> - [speaks native language] <i>DIONNE: Six years ago,</i> <i>they kidnapped more than 250 girls</i> <i>from a school.</i> <i>And for a short time, the world paid attention.</i> <i>MAN: Bring back...</i> <i>ALL: Our girls! MAN: Bring back...</i> <i>REPORTER: The hashtag Bring Back Our Girls</i> <i>has been trending.</i> <i>REPORTER: 20,0000 tweets per hour at one point today.</i> <i>DIONNE: Then the world mostly moved on.</i> <i>And women and girls in northeastern Nigeria</i> <i>continue to be kidnapped...</i> <i>but some of them have escaped.</i> <i>[dynamic music]</i> <i>Most worry if they show their faces</i> <i>and talk openly about what happened,</i> <i>people will suspect they are loyal to Boko Haram.</i> <i>But the woman I’m about to meet</i> <i>wants to tell the world.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[solemn music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Education has always been important to Balaraba.</i> <i>So when a young man expressed interest in marrying her...</i> - [speaking native language] <i>DIONNE: So he decided to drive her to class.</i> <i>DIONNE: When she got her diploma, she married him.</i> <i>DIONNE: She gave birth to a daughter named Harat.</i> <i>They settled into family life.</i> <i>But Boko Haram was nearby...</i> <i>And they were recruiting.</i> Did your husband ever express any feelings about Boko Haram to his friends? <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[foreboding music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: After the men killed Balaraba’s husband,</i> <i>they threw her baby to the ground.</i> [insects chirping] - [speaks native language] [crowd cheering] <i>DIONNE: How did Boko Haram come about?</i> <i>Well, it’s complicated.</i> <i>REPORTER: Deep, historic divisions</i> <i>between the largely rich, secular, oil-producing south</i> <i>and the poor Islamic north.</i> <i>MAN: Corruption enters marginalization...</i> <i>huge areas of a sense of alienation.</i> <i>REPORTER: Anytime you have extremism,</i> <i>the root cause is always poverty.</i> <i>DIONNE: Into that space came Mohammed Yusuf,</i> <i>a charismatic leader who was able to channel</i> <i>anger against a common enemy:</i> <i>the perception that Western ways</i> <i>were fueling the inequality.</i> <i>DIONNE: Boko Haram means</i> <i>“Western education is forbidden.”</i> <i>He promised life by his rules would be better</i> <i>than life under the government.</i> <i>He was captured and executed by Nigerian security forces.</i> - [speaking native language] <i>DIONNE: In his place, a new, crueler leader</i> <i>named Abubakar Shekau rose.</i> <i>DIONNE: People who didn’t follow their orders</i> <i>were systematically beaten or killed.</i> [people shouting] <i>DIONNE: Kidnapping women and girls</i> <i>became a major tool of their war.</i> <i>[ominous music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: When you opened your eyes and came to,</i> what did you see around you? <i>DIONNE: Now they starved and abused her</i> <i>and the other girls they held captive.</i> DIONNE: Did they ever ask you to marry them? - When you said you were shouting, do you mean you were pretending to act crazy or unstable? <i>[somber music]</i> <i>DIONNE: Her world turned upside-down,</i> <i>Balaraba realized that to survive Boko Haram...</i> <i>She would have to outsmart them.</i> - [speaking native language] <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>DIONNE: When I first started reporting on Boko Haram,</i> <i>bombers were attacking</i> <i>churches, mosques, and markets relentlessly.</i> <i>Many of the bombers were girls.</i> <i>Authorities told me they were believers in Boko Haram.</i> <i>They told me they were brainwashed.</i> MAN: The Boko Haram, they are coming right to us. They come to kill these people and gunfire to the houses. DIONNE: Over here? - Yes. <i>DIONNE: Here on the edge of Maiduguri,</i> <i>this group of armed civilians is a thin line of defense.</i> - Two suicide bombers we kill near that tree. <i>DIONNE: Near that tree?</i> <i>MAN: Yeah. DIONNE: That was close.</i> <i>MAN: Ahead of the tree.</i> DIONNE: How do you know they were bombers when you saw them? - When they are coming to us, the one start moving faster. One bullet they shoot and the bomb exploded. MAN: Exploded. DIONNE: Have you ever encountered a suicide bomber who said, you know, she surrendered? - We have, uh, some kids. There are two. I have the video. DIONNE: Oh, you do? MAN: Yes. DIONNE: Can we see them? MAN: I have—yes. <i>[speaking native language]</i> <i>DIONNE: She’s young.</i> - She’s young. DIONNE: Oh, God, she’s really young. <i>- [speaking native language]</i> <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: Then the day came when it was Balaraba’s turn</i> <i>to carry and plant bombs for them.</i> <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[rhythmic chanting through speaker]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: The group deliberated.</i> <i>Then they took a chance on the well.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: The plan worked; it didn’t explode.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>They worried if they didn’t go back to camp</i> <i>and pretend everything went</i> <i>according to Boko Haram’s plan,</i> <i>they would be captured and killed.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [indistinct chatter] <i>[solemn music]</i> [all speaking native language] <i>[rhythmic chanting over speaker]</i> <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: Everyone here knows someone</i> <i>who has been taken by Boko Haram.</i> <i>DIONNE: Hadiza decided to do something about it.</i> <i>DIONNE: She’s one of few women to join</i> <i>a Civilian Joint Task Force here,</i> <i>a vigilante group of citizens</i> <i>determined to fight Boko Haram.</i> <i>[ominous music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [indistinct chatter] [rooster crows] <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: Time and again, Balaraba found ways</i> <i>to avoid setting off bombs.</i> <i>DIONNE: Meanwhile, Hadiza’s Civilian Task Force</i> <i>was zeroing in on where Balaraba was being held.</i> <i>[foreboding music]</i> <i>DIONNE: As Hadiza and the others rushed</i> <i>to rescue the women,</i> <i>Boko Haram seemingly destroyed</i> <i>their own camp with explosives.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>They left behind their captives.</i> <i>Many of them were killed or badly injured.</i> - Do you have any idea how many people were killed that day? <i>[somber music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: You literally saved her life.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [indistinct chatter] <i>[tense music]</i> <i>DIONNE: Balaraba struggled to return to normalcy.</i> <i>[somber music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [woman speaking in native language] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[dynamic music]</i> [both speaking native language] <i>DIONNE: As Balaraba got well,</i> <i>she made a remarkable discovery.</i> <i>Harat, her baby she thought Boko Haram murdered...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Had survived.</i> <i>DIONNE: In 2015, as Balaraba was healing,</i> <i>the Nigerian military and some international forces</i> <i>launched a major offensive against Boko Haram</i> <i>and gained a lot of ground.</i> - Terrorists have died, and many of them have been captured in the process. - We have reclaimed all captured territories. <i>DIONNE: The Nigerian government</i> <i>keeps saying they have defeated Boko Haram,</i> <i>but recently, they’ve split into factions</i> <i>and have been retaking territory.</i> [child speaks native language] <i>They’ve started to attack camps</i> <i>housing the tens of thousands of people</i> <i>that have been displaced by the fighting,</i> <i>and they’ve gotten more sophisticated,</i> <i>arming themselves with weapons they’ve stolen</i> <i>from raiding the Nigerian military.</i> [all speak native language] <i>This year marks</i> <i>the sixth anniversary of the kidnapping</i> <i>of the schoolgirls from Chibok...</i> <i>and over 100 of them are still missing.</i> <i>[ominous music]</i> <i>In February, Boko Haram killed 30 people</i> <i>just outside the gates of the city</i> <i>where Balaraba lives.</i> <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>There are more than 500 women and girls</i> <i>who have been deployed and arrested</i> <i>as suicide bombers,</i> <i>and that number doesn’t include</i> <i>the ones like Balaraba, who went unreported.</i> <i>When exactly did you start telling people</i> <i>about your time with Boko Haram?</i> Did you tell your family or your friends or who? [all speaking native language] <i>[solemn music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [indistinct chatter] [rain pattering] <i>[sentimental music]</i> [both speaking native language] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DIONNE: Harat is seven now, and Balaraba is struggling</i> <i>to build a future for both of them.</i> <i>It’s hard being a single mom.</i> <i>To make ends meet, she embroiders caps</i> <i>and sells drinks out of her fridge</i> <i>she rents by the month.</i> <i>DIONNE: But there’s one thing she wants more than anything.</i> “Incomplete vaccine.” “The child is...” This one for IV. This one for vaccine. I want to explain the mother, I will give your child injection. Five mil, you see? [laughs] <i>DIONNE: Why did you decide to go to nursing school?</i> BALARABA: And go small, small, small. In lift thigh. [car horns honk] [indistinct chatter] <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[poignant music]</i> <i>DIONNE: Today, Balaraba will find out</i> <i>if she has the grades she needs</i> <i>to continue her nursing studies.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The war with Boko Haram is not over...</i> <i>And its outsized impact on women and girls continues.</i> <i>DIONNE: Militants are still using young women as bombers.</i> - [speaks native language] [all speaking native language] <i>DIONNE: But there are so many ways they find...</i> [indistinct chatter] <i>To resist.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[poignant music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i>