The schoolgirls freed from the Islamic militant group Boko Haram have praised God in the wake of their release.
The 21 girls from Chibok – a town in the North-East of Nigeria – were kidnapped from their school in April 2014.
Many of the girls were Christian, but some were forcibly converted to Islam.
Celebration
Nigeria ranks twelfth on the Open Doors watch list, making it one of the worst countries for Christian persecution in the world. Thousands of Christians have been killed or displaced by Islamist extremists.
Gloria Dame, one of the girls kidnapped two years ago, publicly gave thanks to God at a Christian celebration event in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
It is only by God’s grace we survived.
She spoke out about the ordeal she and the other girls were put through. In the local Hausa language she said: “We had no food for one month and ten days, but we did not die. We thank God”.
Enslaved
The girls were told their parents had all been killed and that they would never see them again.
Returned to her parents after more than two years apart, one girl said: “We never imagined that we would see this day but, with the help of God, we were able to come out of enslavement.”
Gloria Dame also said: “It is only by God’s grace we survived”.