Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2014 19:42:52 +0200
Northern Nigeria: ruined lives
By <http://www.irinnews.org/report/100575/northern-nigeria-ruined-lives>
Obinna Anyadike
Watch this-Nigeria's War Widows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO0GCAyBQZQ
MAIDUGURI, 4 September 2014 (IRIN) - Thousands have died in the violence in
Nigeria's northeast between Boko Haram insurgents and the security forces,
with no end in sight to the bloodletting.
Bombings and shootings by the Salafist group have been countered by
extra-judicial murder by the army and the police,
<http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/Nigeria> documented
by local and international human rights groups. After five years of
insurrection, Boko Haram now holds towns in the state of Borno; last week
leader Abubaker Shekau announced a self-declared
<https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/167248-boko-haram-leader-shekau-claims-
captured-gwosa-now-islamic-caliphate.html#sthash.TJGUEt13.dpbs> caliphate.
IRIN talked to a group of mothers and widows in Maiduguri, the birthplace of
Boko Haram, who have lost sons or husbands in the expanding violence.
Haja Kalu Shatima's husband, a civil servant, was killed in 2009, in the
early days of the crisis. Boko Haram ambushed the 14-seater minibus he was
travelling in; only two people survived the attack. "My life has really
changed, but thank God we're still alive," said the mother of seven.
She struggles to make ends meet with a job in local government during the
day, and a petty trade business in the evening. Her children receive free
education through one of the few
<http://www.irinnews.org/report/100507/school-tries-to-heal-the-divide-in-no
rthern-nigeria> schools still open in the state, run by a local lawyer and
philanthropist.
Fatima Usman's husband was kidnapped last year by Boko Haram from his shop.
A few days later she heard he had been killed. She has no idea why he was
targeted. "He was somebody who never made trouble." Now she lives with her
parents and relies on relatives to help support her and her three children.
While Shatima and Usman tried to keep their emotions in check, Maidami
Abubakar is still angry at the policeman that shot dead her husband.
Her husband had left the house early to attend a naming ceremony, but was
stopped by the police near a church in the Polo area of Maiduguri and
accused of carrying a bomb. He was taken to the police station for
questioning, and was cleared of any suspicion - "they said go". But as he
got to the gate, a detective pulled out a gun and shot him, for no apparent
reason.
That was in 2009; a few months later Abubaker heard the detective had
himself been killed. "That serves him right."
Musa never came home
Adama Ali holds out the hope that her 23-year-old son Musa is still alive.
He was arrested only a few days after graduating from the College of
Agriculture in 2013. His name was apparently on a list following the slaying
of two sons of an official in the State Security Service (SSS) living in the
neighbourhood.
"Military men came into the house asking for Musa, and they arrested him
along with his younger brother," who was eventually released. But Musa never
came home. Ali received word he was first held in the 212 tank battalion
barracks and then transferred to an SSS facility.
"Since I haven't been told he's dead, I have it in mind that one day he will
come back. I'm confident he's not Boko Haram, and people in the area have
also given me that assurance."
Her husband, a civil servant, has paid bribes to security agents to try and
find and secure the release of their son, "but he realized he was being
deceived".
"I am totally confused. Before I used to recite the Koran, now I can't even
concentrate. At times I just weep."
<http://www.irinnews.org/Photo/Details/201409041402040459/Anti-Boko-Haram-vi
gilantes-now-patrol-the-streets-of-Maiduguri>
http://www.irinnews.org/photo/Download.aspx?Source=Report&Year=2014&ImageID=
201409041402040459&Width=490
Photo: <http://www.irinnews.org/photo/> Obinna Anyadike/IRIN
Anti-Boko Haram vigilantes now patrol the streets of Maiduguri
(image/jpeg attachment: image002.jpg)