ABUJA, Nigeria – One night in November 2020, a year into his military service, Peacekeeper Azuegbulam’s lifelong dream of being a soldier came to an abrupt end.
He was part of a group of Nigerian soldiers deployed in the country’s counter-offensive against Islamic extremists in northeastern Borno state when an anti-aircraft gun was fired at them. When he regained consciousness, his life was no longer the same and later his left leg had to be amputated.
He got what he described as a chance at recovery when he joined Nigeria’s team at last year’s Invictus Games and won Africa’s first gold medal at the biennial sporting event founded a decade ago by Britain’s Prince Harry to aid rehabilitation. of wounded soldiers.
“I didn’t think I could face life, but Invictus gave me the opportunity to recover through sport,” Azuegbulam, 27, said of the games, which take center stage with Harry and his wife’s three-day visit from Meghan to Nigeria.
Azuegbulam is among the injured and mentally abused Nigerian military personnel in the country’s 14-year war against Islamic extremists and other armed groups in the country’s northern region. They say they feel better and are recovering faster since last year’s Invictus Games, when Nigeria became the first African country to compete in the event.
While sport has been part of the recovery process for Nigeria’s injured soldiers, military officials said the Invictus Games offer them a better opportunity, especially in treating post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Eighty percent of our soldiers who were involved in this recovery program are improving and their outlook on life is positive,” said Abidemi Marquis, military director of sports at the Nigerian Defense Headquarters.
Security analysts say it could help address the mental health crisis plaguing Nigeria’s overstretched and underfunded military, but only if it complements measures to improve soldiers’ well-being. In the past, soldiers have complained of low pay, old weapons and fatigue.
In Nigeria, Harry played an Invictus Games-related volleyball match with injured soldiers in Abuja, the capital, and visited a military hospital treating serious injuries.
The game with Harry was “like a lift in our spirits,” said Lance Cpl. Dean Onuwchekwa, an explosive ordnance disposal expert whose upper body was damaged in 2021 by a homemade bomb he was trying to defuse in the town of Mallam Fatori in Borno state.
“It’s so hard to wake up and discover you have no hands, only one eye and 25% of your hearing – it was like life was over,” said Onuwchekwa, 45.
He said that after the explosion, he more than once thought about turning the gun on himself as he battled PTSD, panic attacks and nights filled with terrifying dreams and days filled with memories of the explosion.
Last September, he was selected to join Nigeria’s 10-player squad to attend the games, where he took part in snowboarding.
“I was depressed when I went there, but when I came back, I came alive,” he said, his functional left eye widening with excitement.
Sitting next to him was the sergeant. Monday Peter, whose legs were amputated after an armored vehicle tore them apart while patrolling villages in northwestern Kaduna state in 2011.
“I didn’t know what sitting volleyball was before,” Peter said of the game he played with Prince Harry. “But today I can play, I can play basketball, I can even swim. The Invictus Games boosted my confidence and morale.”
Studies have shown that sports can help veterans heal from physical and psychological problems related to their combat experiences. Sports, for example, help improve social connections, stress management, self-esteem and mental well-being, according to Dr. Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri, one of Nigeria’s most popular mental health doctors.
“These soldiers develop resilience and a new sense of purpose,” Kadiri said. “Sport provides them with a glimmer of hope and solace as they face the difficulties of life after war.”
Having served in Afghanistan as co-pilot gunner on an Apache helicopter from 2012 to 2013, Harry, the Duke of Sussex, also suffered from PTSD. In his recent Netflix series about the Invictus Games, he said he didn’t have the support he needed when he returned home from fighting in Afghanistan in 2012 and that this triggered emotions he had suppressed following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was 12 years old.
He later started the Invictus Games, modeled after the United States Warrior Games, to give military personnel and veterans the challenge of competing in sporting events similar to the Paralympic Games.
Harry visited the Nigerian Army Referral Hospital for serious injuries in northern Nigeria. Among the wounded soldiers there, Cpl. Iziogo Onyema, 31, had his right arm reset after a gunshot wound. A bullet entered and exited the sergeant. Emmanuel Oyesigi’s stomach during an ambush. An explosion hit soldier Habu Sadiq’s eyes.
But even the prosthetics produced at the hospital were not used by some.
“Part of it is stigma,” General Ndidi Onuchukwu, the hospital’s chief medical director, told Harry when he asked why they weren’t using the prosthetics.
In the officers’ mess in Abuja, soldiers spoke freely about how they had dealt with shame in the past. Now, they say, they no longer mind when people stop to look at the burned or damaged parts of their bodies.
“After I got injured, it affected me mentally, emotionally and physically,” Azuegbulam said. “But today I am living proof of resilience and hope.”
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
