Samuel, Patience & Praise

Samuel and Patience come from Biafra, a secessionist region of Nigeria which was independant from 1967 to 1970, before Nigerian military reclaim the territory of Biafra, in a war that cost the lives of 2 million people. 
Still today, fights for independance still go on, with several armed groups attacking people from other affiliations.  
 
Samuel’s parents were killed by Nigerian soldiers who killed his parents and burned his house, leaving him with heavy burns on his body.  

Biafra is inside Nigeria, and it wants to divide from Nigeria.  
That’s why the problem starts. 
Soldiers, Nigerian soldiers started attacking us.  
In the process, I lost my parents.  
They burned our house.  
Some fire condemned some of my body. 
And we stayed without a roof over our heads for some months.

With his wife Patience, they have three children who are still in Nigeria, but Samuel’s life was in danger and he had to leave.  
He got scammed by a Nigerian man who promised him safety and work and led him to cross the desert all the way to Libya. Once there, the couple was separated and were both forced to work without being paid, and without knowing where was their partner. 
They found eachother again when Patience managed to flee from the place she was kept. 

Libya. 
It’s not a good country for someone to stay. 
It puts your life in risk. 
Your life is just 50-50.  
You can make It or you die.  
Libya is a place of suffering. 
You know that anybody who enters Libya will live as a slave.  
 

Patience got pregnant, but when she was already in labour, she went to three hospitals who rejected her because of the colour of her skin. She was forced to deliver her baby alone, in the back of the taxi. 

And my baby is coming out. 
I have to push it out, because without that, maybe I will lose him. 
I delivered my baby …inside the car. 
I delivered my baby myself. 
My husband is in the front with the driver. 
Me, I’m the only one in the back. 
So I delivery my baby.  
I tell my husband : “The baby is out!”. 
They were very surprised! 
When they heard the cry of the baby: “When, how?!” 

The hospital didn’t allow her son to get his essential vaccines either. 
Her baby boy is called Praise.  
 
The family was attacked and robbed several times and when given the opportunity to leave Libya by boat, they thought it was their only chance. 
They embarked on a rubber boat in the middle of a storm, amid 5-meter high waves and strong winds. They had no water or food onboard and ran out of fuel. Samuel remembers crying of fear that his baby would die. 

I was crying. 
I’m not crying to die, but I’m crying for my little baby. 
My baby [was] weak. 
Everyone was weak. 
No food for two days. 
No food, no water. 
If we sail more, or we continue the journey, everyone will die.  

After two days at sea, they saw lights. They thought it was the only possibility to be safe since their boat was not going to bring them further. It was the Miskar offshore gas platform, owned by Tunisia (in the overlapping Tunisian and Maltese Search and Rescue Region). 
The workers on the platform helped them to climb up. The women were sheltered but the men had to sleep outside in the storm. They say the workers did their best and gave them food. They remained four nights and five days on the platform before being rescued by the Ocean Viking. 
They were so grateful to finally be rescued.