Young Chibok Boko Haram attack victim survives corrective surgery in Dubai

Ali Ahmadu, the six year old boy from Chibok village, Borno State, who was run over by Boko Haram terrorists when they invaded his village three years ago, survived an intensive corrective surgery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

After the incident, young Ali, who was left devastated, with a spinal cord injury and unable to move, was flown out of the country on Sunday, September 10, 2017 for the operation courtesy The Dickens Sanomi Foundation (DSF).

The Foundation had on August 18, 2017 offered to pay the entire $48,000 (about N17.5million) medical bill required to help the young boy travel to Dubai for an appointment at a medical facility specializing in corrective spinal cord surgery operations.

Representatives of DSF, who visited the boy in Dubai said he made it through a successful corrective surgery, which lasted for over 48 hour in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Igho Sanomi and members of the DSF, were at boy’s bedside shortly after the operation.

The Founder of the Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care (GIPLC), the organization that coordinated young Ali’s surgery, Nuhu Kwajafa, said doctors who carried out the operation described Ali as “a very strong boy who was determined to live”.

“After five hours of surgery, on September 17, 2017, and 48 hours in the intensive care unit, to God be the glory, Ali Ahmadu had a very successful procedure and is currently stabilizing and recovering,” Mr. Kwajafa told DSF officials.

“It has been a divine journey, starting from far away Chibok village in 2014. And little boy left for dead, underneath a tree, after a vicious Boko Haram attack, to where we are today.

“In young Ali we have a fighting spirit, a resolute and charming soul, beating all odds to survive and to walk again. This reflects so truly the Nigerian Spirit. We are indeed grateful to God,” he said.

After the operation, Ali is expected back in the country in three months.

The DSF was established in 2011 by the children of Dickens Sanomi, to commemorate his remarkable life through the provision of charitable support to needy Nigerian youth, on whom he placed great value during his lifetime.

The DSF resources are used to deliver and support charitable projects whose aims and activities are in accord with its objective.

The Foundation has been sponsoring essay competitions, musical outreach programmes and literacy awareness campaigns as a way of promoting education of youth in the country.