ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — One night in November 2020, a 12 months into his army service, Peacemaker Azuegbulam’s lifelong dream of being a soldier got here to an abrupt finish.

He was amongst a gaggle of Nigerian troopers deployed within the nation’s grinding counteroffensive in opposition to Islamic extremists in northeastern Borno state when an anti-aircraft weapon was fired at them. When he regained consciousness, his life was not the identical, and his left leg later needed to be amputated.

He was given what he described as an opportunity to recuperate when he joined Nigeria’s crew in final 12 months’s Invictus Video games and received Africa’s first gold medal on the biennial sporting occasion based a decade in the past by the U.Okay.’s Prince Harry to help within the rehabilitation of wounded troopers.

“I assumed I couldn’t meet up with life, however Invictus gave me a possibility to recuperate by means of sports activities,” Azuegbulam, 27, mentioned of the video games, that are within the highlight with Harry and his spouse, Meghan’s three-day go to to Nigeria.

Azuegbulam is among the many Nigerian servicemembers wounded and mentally battered within the nation’s 14-year-long struggle in opposition to Islamic extremists and different armed teams in the nation’s northern area. They are saying they really feel higher and are recovering sooner since final 12 months’s Invictus Video games, when Nigeria turned the primary African nation to compete within the occasion.

Although sports activities had been a part of the restoration course of for Nigeria’s wounded troopers, army officers mentioned the Invictus Video games affords them a greater probability, particularly in coping with post-traumatic stress dysfunction.

“Eighty % of our troopers which were concerned on this restoration program are getting higher and their outlook on life is constructive,” mentioned Abidemi Marquis, the army’s director of sports activities on the Nigerian Protection Headquarters.

Safety analysts say it could assist take care of the psychological well being disaster that’s overwhelming Nigeria’s overstretched and underfunded army, however solely whether it is along with measures to enhance the welfare of troopers. Previously, troopers have complained of poor pay, outdated weapons and fatigue.

In Nigeria, Harry performed an Invictus Video games-related volleyball match with wounded troopers in Abuja, the capital, and visited a army hospital dealing with crucial accidents.

The sport with Harry was “like a lifting of our spirits,” mentioned Lance Cpl. Dean Onuwchekwa, an explosive ordnance disposal specialist whose higher physique was broken in 2021 by a home made bomb he was attempting to disarm in Borno state’s Mallam Fatori city.

“It’s so exhausting simply waking up and discovering that you just don’t have arms, are left with just one eye and 25% of your listening to – it was like life is over,” mentioned Onuwchekwa, 45.

He mentioned that after explosion, he greater than as soon as considered turning his gun on himself as he battled PTSD, bouts of panic and nights crammed with terrifying desires and days crammed with recollections of the blast.

Final September, he was chosen to affix Nigeria’s crew of 10 to attend the video games, the place he participated in snowboarding.

“I used to be down once I went there however coming again, I turned alive,” he mentioned, his useful left eye widening in pleasure.

Sitting beside him was Sgt. Monday Peter, whose legs had been amputated after an armored personnel service shattered them as they patrolled villages in northwestern Kaduna state in 2011.

“I didn’t know what sitting volleyball was earlier than,” Peter mentioned of the sport performed with Prince Harry. “However in the present day, I can play it, I can play basketball, I may even swim. The Invictus Video games have constructed my confidence and my morale.”

Research have proven that sports activities will help veterans heal from the bodily and psychological points associated to their fight experiences. Sports activities assist, for example, to reinforce social connections, stress administration, vanity and psychological wellness, in line with Dr. Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri, one in all Nigeria’s hottest psychological well being physicians.

“These troopers develop resilience and a recent sense of objective,” Kadiri mentioned. “Sports activities present them with a glimmer of hope and solace as they negotiate the difficulties of life after the struggle.”

Having served in Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter copilot gunner from 2012 to 2013, Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has additionally skilled PTSD. In his current Netflix sequence concerning the Invictus Video games, he mentioned he didn’t have the assist he wanted when he returned residence from fight in Afghanistan in 2012 and that it triggered feelings that he had suppressed after the demise of his mom, Princess Diana, when he was 12 years outdated.

He later began the Invictus Video games, modeled after the Warrior Video games in the USA, to offer servicemembers and veterans the problem of competing in sports activities occasions much like the Paralympics.

Harry visited the Nigerian Military Reference Hospital for crucial accidents in northern Nigeria. Among the many wounded troopers there, Cpl. Iziogo Onyema, 31, had his proper arm reset after a gunshot wound. A bullet went out and in of Sgt. Emmanuel Oyesigi’s abdomen throughout an ambush. An explosion ripped by means of Personal Habu Sadiq’s eyes.

However even the prosthetics being produced on the hospital weren’t being utilized by some.

“It’s partly stigma,” Gen. Ndidi Onuchukwu, the hospital’s chief medical director, informed Harry when he requested why they weren’t utilizing the prosthetics.

On the officers’ mess in Abuja, servicemembers spoke freely about how they handled the disgrace previously. Now, they are saying, they’re not bothered when individuals cease to take a look at the burned or broken components of their our bodies.

“After I received injured, it affected me mentally, emotionally and bodily,” Azuegbulam mentioned. “However in the present day, I’m dwelling proof of resilience and hope.”