In 2014, the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign transfixed people around the world concerned about the plight of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped and forced into sex slavery by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram.

In a new documentary to be aired in the US on HBO tonight, film-makers follow the lives of Nigerian girls that were freed

More than four years later, the spotlight shines back on their plight, and that of thousands of women like them, in the documentary Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram, premiering on HBO.

The wrenching film follows two Chibok girls freed in 2017 and two women who, like thousands of others, were kidnapped but are known as “forgotten girls” because they weren’t captured in a high-profile event.

Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced at least 2 million. Mines laid by Boko Haram killed 162 people in two years and wounded 277, according to a report released last month. This week, a Boko Haram faction killed an aid worker. And 112 Chibok girls are still missing.

The girls released last year are the focus of the documentary, which provides an exclusive look at the safe house where they have lived, their first time being reunited with family and the moment they meet their former classmates, who continued their studies while they were in captivity.

The Forgotten Girls, meanwhile, try to recover their lives in Maiduguri, a city targeted repeatedly by Boko Haram, scraping by on support from aid groups. They must also confront a community worried that the women, as well as men and children kidnapped by the group, have returned radicalized.

“The community in Maiduguri has been really stoic in opening up their doors to refugees and providing shelter,” said producer Sasha Joelle Achilli. “There’s a bit of both: there’s the fear and stigma attached to the people who have been living with Boko Haram and there’s also just great openness and generosity to help the other.”

The stories and scenes from Maiduguri provide a less varnished look at terrors Boko Haram is still carrying out against Nigerians, while the Chibok girls story is more focused on rehabilitation.

Nigeria’s government put [restrictions] on the production.

In an early scene, the head teacher at the safe house gathers the Chibok girls to announce the film crew has arrived. She explains to the girls that the film-makers have been told not to ask about their experience with Boko Haram. “Do not tell them about what happened in the forest,” she warns.

Despite those warnings, a sliver of their experience comes through from anonymized diaries girls shared with the film-makers.

“The fact that the Chibok girls were kept for three and a half years is an embarrassment to the Nigerian government,” Edwards explained. “They don’t want the world thinking too much about that or what might have happened to them … They want the world to see the Chibok girls are being looked after, want for nothing, they get food and dresses made for them, that they are very safe and secure, and that’s what they want the world to see.”

Edwards said the girls did say they felt safe there and were grateful for the government’s protection because they are still scared of Boko Haram. “It’s a complex situation but we made sure we were honest with the audience that this is the condition and this is how they’re being told not to talk about it,” Edwards said.

Because the Chibok girls are warned away from disclosing what happened to them at the hands of Boko Haram, it’s the Forgotten Girls who offer a glimpse of what happened in the forest.

A woman called Zahra, whose name was changed for safety reasons, explains what responsibilities Boko Haram gave women in the three months she was there: caring for the sick, helping those who were pregnant and helping to kidnap more women.

It’s the latter activity that appears to have shaken Zahra most, as she describes a violent attack that happened during a kidnapping she was enlisted to help with under the threat of death.

Zahra tells the story of what happened to a 14-year-old kidnap victim in a few sentences, each worse than the one that came before, then concludes: “I will never forget her all of my life.”

Boko Haram Teaching Child Soldiers to Rape (trigger warning)

Senior Boko Haram militants are now ‘providing specific instructions’ to younger boys for raping women and girls at gunpoint.

Well before they set off for the attack, Ahmed’s superiors told the fighters to capture as many women and children as they could, and that they would be allowed to “have fun” when they returned to their base.

“At first I didn’t understand what they meant by ‘you are going to have fun’ and nobody thought to explain,” said Ahmed. “Days before we left for Gwoza, they began to show us what they wanted us to do.”

For the next two days, the young boys, most of whom were about Ahmed’s age [15], watched as their commanders raped women and young girls abducted in earlier raids. The lesson for the boys was clear: They were learning to subdue a struggling victim during sexual assault.

“The girls will scream and cry for help, but [the militants] didn’t care,” Ahmed said. “Sometimes they’ll be slapped and threatened with guns if they didn’t cooperate.”

While in the act, the jihadists provided specific instructions to the young militants.

“They tell us to remember to hold the girl tight on both hands, pinned to the floor,” Ahmed said. “They said we shouldn’t let a woman overpower us.”

The leaders were making a sharp departure from previous rules. Previously, even though dozens of women and girls were held hostage in their camps, young militants were prohibited from emulating their elders.

“From the day we came, they [Boko Haram commanders] kept warning us against having sex,” Ahmed said. “They said women belonged to men and not boys.”

Now, all that changed. A large number of senior fighters had been killed in one assault by the military, forcing the militants to take the boys along as part of the mission to Gwoza. But they knew they had to incite these young teens as well, and they wanted to replenish their supply of female hostages. Some abducted girls had been married off, and some had escaped or been rescued by Nigerian forces, leaving the jihadists with just a handful of female captives to prey upon.

“They wanted us to do a good job and that was why they said we will have fun when we returned,” Ahmed said. “I could see that so many young boys were excited.”

(UK date to follow)