Haram

The 300 metres separating Aisha Ali’s new house from the old farmhouse may seem short, but it represents the long journey of her life. The 45-year-old widow crosses fields of various crops that she tends. 

Aisha was not an active farmer; her late husband handled that. However, he was abducted in 2023 by Boko Haram terrorists while working on their farm in Malari Village, Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, and was later killed after they failed to pay a ransom. 

“My life changed tragically,” she recounted with a weary calm. 

Aisha’s husband’s death made her the breadwinner of a 10-person household, which included her six children and three of her husband’s siblings. She had no choice but to take up the hoe. 

A year later, her 10-year-old son was abducted by terrorists. He was later released when they learned that they had killed his father in the past.

It was under this constant shadow of fear, relying on subsistence farming and petty trade, that Aisha and her family found a fragile balance until the night the water came.

The midnight escape

In September 2024, a ruptured dam in nearby Alau, coupled with heavy rainfall, led to floods that submerged Maiduguri and surrounding communities, including Muna displacement camp, where Aisha lived with her family. 

They had gone to bed after an exhausting day, but around midnight, screams from the neighbours woke them up. “I woke up and saw water everywhere,” she recounted. 

Amid the terrifying mix of darkness and rising water, there was no time to save their belongings. She rallied her children, strapped the youngest to her back, and fled into the downpour. 

Together with other displaced persons, they walked for hours until they found dry land, where they stayed until dawn. When the water subsided, Aisha returned to find her entire life washed away. “We became homeless without our belongings,” she said.

A doorless shelter and hope

Staying at the displacement camp was not an option, as the government had already planned to shut it down. “Returning to Dubula, our ancestral home, was not an option either,” she said 

Aisha looked for shelter nearby and found one on credit—an uncompleted building. The structure had no doors, leaving her family vulnerable to constant theft. What few items they acquired were often stolen when they stepped out, turning their temporary shelter into a trap of insecurity. The widow, who had survived both Boko Haram and the flood, now faced the demoralising grind of daily survival in an exposed space.

Since there was no other alternative, they continued living in the building.

Aisha said it was overwhelming, but she held onto hope and did the best she could to care for her children. Weeks later, SOS Children’s Village, a global humanitarian organisation, visited the community for an assessment. “When they came around, I initially dismissed them for one of those numerous NGOs that normally come around to take our data but offer nothing much but some measures of grains,” Aisha told HumAngle. However, she registered with them as a widow and head of her household. 

SOS returned with support that Aisha describes as “an investment in dignity”. She underwent training in smart farming techniques, followed by a starter kit of essential tools: a pumping machine for irrigation, a spraying machine, insecticides, fertiliser, a wheelbarrow, and processed seeds.

“This support transformed our lives and brought relative comfort to us,” she added.

The first harvest 

With the implements, cash support, and farming inputs, Aisha got to work. She cultivated beans, pepper, tomato, okra, onion, and yams. 

She made her first harvest this farming season. “I was able to use the money from my first farm harvest to escape the unsafe shed,” she said, adding that she paid ₦30,000 for half a year’s rent on their current house. Her family now has enough food, and the surplus is sold to cover essential needs like medication.

“I am most excited that for the first time, my children are now in school—something we could not afford before,” she told HumAngle. 

Aisha explained that her income varies depending on what she takes to the market and how much she can harvest. “There is no fixed amount,” she said. “For beans, a full ‘mudu’ — that’s a standard measuring bowl — sells for between ₦1,200 and ₦1,300. Sometimes I sell up to half a bag, which is about 20 mudus. For tomatoes, a basket goes for about ₦25,000, and we usually get two or three baskets, depending on the yield.”

She hopes that the cycle of loss and disaster has finally been broken. 

“I thank the SOS people for coming to our aid because only God knows the fate that would have befallen me and my family if I had not received their support. They didn’t come to give us fish, but they came to teach us fishing,”  she said. 

Aisha said other women also received the support: “I saw them during the training, and I believe they are doing well with their families as well.”

According to Fredson Ogbeche, the Humanitarian Action Manager at SOS Children’s Village Nigeria, “One hundred families, many headed by women transforming grief into drive just like Aisha, benefitted from the intervention.”

One of the women, Aisha Bukar, is also a widow. The 55-year-old lives in the Elmiskin 2 area of Jere LGA, Borno State. Life has been a relentless succession of personal loss as she has buried seven of her 12 children over the years due to the conflict and lost her husband to a prolonged illness. This overwhelming hardship was compounded last year when destructive floodwaters swept through her home. Having lost everything in the flood, she had to start all over again. 

“What the government offered as a palliative for the flood survivors did not go around to many of us. We were almost stranded until SOS came to assist us,” she said. 

SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria is one of the humanitarian organisations that provided post-flooding recovery support for survivors. Aside from the farm implements and inputs, the organisation gave ₦395,000 to each beneficiary. 

Bukar did not go to the farm. She used the funding to meet domestic needs and also started a tailoring business where they mass-produce and sell children’s clothes.

She said that the steady income has given her daughter a second chance at education. 

Earlier this year, Ya Jalo Mustapha stayed with her two sons, Ali and Bor, in Njimiya, a village in Sambisa Forest, Borno State, North East Nigeria, an area under the governance of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). 

In Njimiya, as in other villages under its control, ISWAP’s authority is absolute — enforced through rules, fear, and constant surveillance.

One day, Ya Jalao’s sons went out and never returned. No one could say where they had gone or whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, rumours spread that some men from nearby settlements had been seized by the military during raids.

Such disappearances are not uncommon in Borno State, where years of insurgency have blurred the lines between civilians and suspects. In one well-known case, 42 men from Gallari village were arrested by the military on suspicion of being Boko Haram members and detained for 12 years without trial; only three were recently released. Other times, the insurgents also abduct and forcibly recruit young men. 

In October, five months after their disappearance, Ya Jalo’s daughters-in-law remarried Boko Haram terrorists. 

Stranded with her four grandchildren, Ya Jalo knew she could not remain in Njimiya. Her eleven-year-old granddaughter, Magana, was next in line to be forced into marriage. “A suitor was already chosen for her,” Ya Jalo told HumAngle. “I was at the risk of losing her, too.”

Staying in the villages is rarely a sign of loyalty. For most families, it is because they risk execution if they flee, while staying at least allows them to eat from their farms.

Every day brought a deeper fear for Ya Jalo. She worried that her grandsons would slowly absorb the teachings of the insurgents. With no schooling except the sermons of Boko Haram, the risk of their indoctrination weighed heavily on her.

She kept her plan secret until the morning of her escape. That day, Ya Jalo informed neighbours that she was visiting a relative in a nearby settlement with her grandchildren. That began the three-day trek to Bama town. They travelled through bush paths, walking mostly at dawn and dusk until they reached the camp. 

“The journey was full of risks and uncertainty,” she said. “Even the children don’t know where we’re heading.” They eventually arrived. 

A different kind of struggle

For families fleeing Boko Haram-held villages, arriving at the Bama IDP Camp feels like stepping out of a nightmare. Many come with the hope that they are walking into safety, a place where food, shelter, and healing will finally be waiting. 

But what they find is a different struggle altogether. The displacement camp has exceeded its capacity, with hundreds of people living there. In early 2025, the government relocated about 3,000 persons to Dar Jamal, a small fraction that barely reduced the camp’s congestion. 

New arrivals, like Ya Jalo, often sleep in the open because no shelters are available. Since she was with children, Ya Jalo moved in with a relative who lives nearby. 

At the camp, individuals are required to register with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), which forwards the information to ZOA International. The organisation provides breakfast and lunch for five days and a cash token of ₦11,450 per person for three months. 

However, there is no provision for education, healthcare, and psychosocial support.  

Several others who are fleeing their homes for refuge at the camps are confronted with this reality. “We thought this would be a place to rest, but it is only another kind of struggle,” Hajja Kura lamented. She fled Zarmari in October, another Boko Haram stronghold, in early July to the Bama displacement camp.

The absence of proper shelter and long-term care leaves many returnees questioning whether their escape was worthwhile. Some, disillusioned, quietly return to their villages, where the danger of insurgents still lurks.

Children at risk

In Bama, Ya Jalo’s fears for her grandchildren continue in new ways. She often worries about how years of exposure to insurgent preaching may have shaped their minds.

“The children are like wet clay,” said Abba Kura, a community leader at Bama. “Whoever holds them first will shape them. In many of those villages, it was Boko Haram who held them first.”

The effect is visible across the camp. When HumAngle visited, ten-year-old Modu Abbaye recalled lessons he learned in the forest. “Boko Haram are kind,” he said. “They always preach to us not to cheat people, to be kind, and not to insult others.”

Even though the group killed his parents and his friend’s father, a schoolteacher, Modu still speaks of them with a child’s innocence. He has never attended a formal school and insists he never will because “it is forbidden”.

“I don’t want to go to school,” said Modu. He lives with a relative at the camp.

Due to the absence of structured education and psychological support at the camps, many children remain caught between conflicting identities, victims and vessels of the very ideology that uprooted them.

“Children growing up in displacement camps or conflict zones suffer disrupted education, delayed development, and persistent anxiety. They often struggle to imagine futures beyond survival,” said Mohammad Usman Bunu, an educator at Future Prowess School for displaced and vulnerable children in Maiduguri.

For Ya Jalo, that future feels uncertain too. As she watches her grandchildren adjust to life outside of their hometown, she is haunted by the same questions: what kind of lives will they build without their fathers and mothers, and will they ever know peace again? Her thoughts often drift to Ali and Bor, the sons who vanished months earlier.

“I also came here to wait for news of my sons,” she said. “I feel closer to them in Bama. I believe they are with the military, and one day I will be reunited with them.”

In Borno’s camps, stories like hers echo everywhere. Families are displaced, divided, and still holding on to hope that the war has not taken everything from them.

Amid ongoing terrorist activities by Boko Haram in northern Cameroon, particularly in the Far North, contraband trade with Nigeria and neighbouring countries has resulted in a significant increase in Cameroon’s deficit, reaching 50.7 billion FCFA (around US$89.8 million).

A report from Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics (NIS) regarding informal transborder trade for 2024 indicates that this deficit is increasing compared to last year’s numbers, which reached 44.6 billion FCFA (approximately US$79 million). This deficit was noted in 2023 following the record high of 71.8 billion FCFA (around US$79 million) in 2022. 

The deficit, which is in Cameroon’s disfavour, is principally due to the heavy weight of informal purchases from Nigeria, a neighbouring country with a commercial deficit of 111,73 billion FCFA in 2024 after the 2022 peak of 168.04 billion FCFA.

“The structural disequilibrium of the informal commercial balance with Nigeria can be explained by two closely linked factors namely, the extensive land border with this neighbouring country (Nigeria) doubled with the permeability of the border and the dynamism of the Nigerian economy accentuated by the drop in the exchange rate of its currency, the naira, as well as the competitivity of its offer in the hydrocarbons sector,” the NIS noted.

The NIS added that informal importations from neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, which shares a common border of 1,500 kilometres with Cameroon from north to south, have two principal entry points: the Far North and the North within the northerly part of Cameroon and the Southwest in the southern part.

The majority of imported goods primarily pass through the Far North region, accounting for 49.4 per cent of imports in 2024, followed by the North region at 20.8 per cent. This trend is largely influenced by contraband networks dealing in fuel, livestock, and manufactured products. According to NIS, fuel and lubricants make up the largest share of these imports at 22.1 per cent, with live animals following at 14.6 per cent.

Over 70 per cent of smuggling activities between Cameroon and its neighbouring countries, especially Nigeria, occur in the Far North and North regions. This continues despite the insecurity caused by Boko Haram militants operating in the Far North of Cameroon.

On the contrary, the influx of transit through the Southwest Region has dropped (-38.7 per cent), due to the Anglophone crisis, according to the report. The Adamawa (-17.5 per cent) and the East (-3.3 per cent) have also seen their imports contrast due to security and logistical difficulties (degraded roads and armed groups).

Since 2016, separatist activities have disturbed the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon, which have boundaries with Nigeria. These activities are slowing down economic activity. These same activities are parallel to exactions by armed groups from the Central African Republic, which endanger the corridors of the East and Adamawa regions of Cameroon.

Boko Haram insurgents raided Wagga Mongoro, a rural community in Madagali Local Government Area (LGA), Adamawa State, in northeastern Nigeria, on Tuesday night, Sept. 23. They killed four residents, injured several others, and destroyed property, including a church, homes, and vehicles.

Cyrus Ezra, a resident, told HumAngle that several residents began fleeing when the terrorists invaded the community at about 11:40 p.m. “They killed David Mbicho, his son Daniel, Jude Jacob, and Omega Duda. They burnt churches, motorcycles, houses, and a car,” he said, adding that the local vigilante group tried to repel the attack but was outnumbered and outgunned. 

“The group was heavily armed, and there was no official security presence, so our vigilante group had to abandon the fight,” he explained. “So far, we don’t know the total number of injured persons apart from the deceased.”

Cyrus said security operatives arrived only the following morning, Sept. 24, after fleeing residents had begun returning to assess the damage. 

Residents told HumAngle that security operatives deployed to Madagali LGA are usually stationed in the town centre or in Nimankara, leaving villages like Wagga Mongoro vulnerable. 

This was not the first time the community had been targeted. Barely two months ago, in July, terrorists raided the community, burning houses and forcing residents to flee to Madagali town and other neighbouring communities. They returned weeks after calm was restored. Now, after the latest assault, residents are fleeing once again.

“Right now, people have packed their bags and are leaving for Yola, the Adamawa State capital, and other places to go and stay with their loved ones.  Nobody wants to stay behind to witness this kind of incident again,” Cyrus said. 

According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, Boko Haram has displaced over 200,000 persons in Adamawa State so far, most of them from Michika and Madagali LGAs. 

“We are scared,” Cyrus said. “Our greatest need right now is security. Some of us don’t want to leave our homes.”

Modu Bintumi was sleeping peacefully with his wife and eight children that Tuesday when, just before dawn, they were jolted awake with the news that Boko Haram was about to raid their village in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. 

He quickly carried a wheelbarrow with some of his children inside to flee. 

“We left everything behind and fled,” he recounted, adding that they have not returned since.

The family travelled for two days before reaching Maiduguri, the state capital. “We had nothing to eat during that time. We survived by finding ways to make do in the forest. From there, we went to Mamuri before finally arriving here,” he said. 

Like many others in the community who fled that night, Modu left behind his livelihood, that is, his farms, which he described as his “main concern”. “We want to go back and check on our farms and retrieve our belongings, but I am afraid,” he added.

Modu’s life has changed since he fled. He once had a steady daily routine: waking up in the morning, eating, going to the farm, returning home to bathe, visiting friends, and praying. Now in Maiduguri, he spends most of his days lost in restless thought, reflecting on the life he left behind and the farms that once sustained him. 

“I had planted millet, groundnuts, beans, and other crops, but I fear that most of them have spoiled by now. I keep thinking of my valuables, and that’s why I’m looking worried and slimming,” he said, adding that fleeing has cost him around ₦5 million. 

“We need the government to help us according to its capacity,” Modu told HumAngle.

HumAngle reached out to the Borno  State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to enquire about any response plans for the affected populations. There had been no response yet at press time.

For Falmata Ahmed, the loss cuts even deeper. Her husband has been missing since the attack. He fled moments before Boko Haram stormed in and has not returned since. Now, living alone and caring for her three children. She longs to return to her village not only to resume her life but also to search for her missing husband. 

“I am hoping to see my husband,” she said.

“We’re currently waiting for our village to become peaceful so we can return to our farms,” Falmata added. “If the situation doesn’t normalise, we’ll have to stay here. Our main desire is to have access to our farms and return to our village when it’s safe.”

The influx of displaced people into Maiduguri and other major towns has increased since the beginning of 2025 as Boko Haram’s continuous violence sweeps through villages and repatriated communities in the region. 

In August alone, the terror group attacked more than ten villages in Magumeri Local Government Area, ransacking homes. Thousands of families have been forced to flee, abandoning their ripening crops, destroyed homes, and looted communities, and are now scattered in search of safety, food, and shelter.

One of the terrorised villages is Kriwari, where Falmata and Modu fled from. Its 65-year-old head, Bulama Umara Kanami, and his three wives and 28 children, watched as the terrorists stormed in on motorcycles, firing shots and scattering the entire community. 

Bulama said “no single person remained” in the village of over 1000 households. 

Listing other villages that had been emptied, Bulama named Malabari, Borkawuri, Bulumdi, Kurumri, Sadiri, Abachari, Abchuri, Titiya, and several others. 

“We were all chased away with our children,” Bulama said.

Although traumatising, he said their ordeal in Kriwari was mild compared to what other villages experienced that day, as the terrorists launched simultaneous attacks across multiple communities in the area. At least eight people from Bulama’s village were abducted during the attack, he said. It is, however, unconfirmed if Falamata’s husband was among them.

The attacks took place in the first week of August, right at the peak of the farming season. Crops had already begun sprouting, while others were nearing maturity.

Like Modu and Falmata, Bulama’s deepest regret is abandoning his farm just as the crops ripened. “We left our beans, maize, millet, and groundnuts,” he lamented. “I cultivated a large area inherited from my parents and grandparents. Personally, I lost about ₦8 million. Still, we have faith in God, but we will also be glad if the government can help.”

Since the attack, he said, people have dispersed across Maiduguri, staying with relatives, friends, or setting up makeshift shelters in host communities. 

“Actually, my people are in a critical condition due to a lack of good accommodation. Some ran but couldn’t reach here. They were sleeping in the farm among trees, still hiding,” Bulama said. “What I want is for my people to have something to eat and have shelter. This is what I want.”

When HumAngle visited some of the displaced families in Maiduguri, the living conditions were dire. Villagers had fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Only a few, they said, had received clothes from kind residents in the host communities.

The series of violence that swept through Magumeri adds to recent attacks, including the killings of at least 60 residents in Darajamal, a community in Bama Local Government Area, just weeks after the attacks in Magumeri. These cases simply indicated sustained Boko Haram violent campaigns targeting rural villages that have been steadily uprooting communities, deepening hunger, and fuelling displacement in areas already struggling with insecurity and fragile humanitarian conditions.

According to Bulama, Kriwari, like some of the other villages, had no form of state security services like the army and members of the Civilian Joint Task Force. Even Babagana Zulum, the state governor, recently admitted that “the numerical strength of the military is not enough to cover everywhere,” leaving communities exposed with little or no protection.

For Bulama, the recent displacement is painfully familiar. “We were displaced about three times before. However, the previous times, we were able to come back and take our belongings and eventually resettled, but this time, we are afraid to go back,” he said.

Sept. 7 (UPI) — More than 60 people were killed in overnight attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the northern Nigerian state of Borno, local officials said. At least five of the people killed were soldiers.

The militants struck the village of Darul Jamal, the location of a military base along the Nigeria-Cameroon border. The Nigerian Air Force said it killed 30 militants after it received reports of attacks on the village.

“In a series of three precise and successive strikes, the fleeing terrorists were decisively engaged, resulting in the neutralization of over 30 insurgents,” Nigerian Air Force spokesperson Ehimen Ejodame said, according to BBC News.

Ejodame said the insurgents were fleeing north from the town toward nearby bushes.

Residents recently returned to the rebuilding village after years of being displaced by fighting between Boko Haram and rival groups, including the West African branch of the Islamic State group, authorities said.

“This community was settled a few months ago and they went about their normal activities, but unfortunately, they experienced a Boko Haram attack last night,” Gov. Babagana Zulum told local media. “Our visit is to commiserate with them and build their resilience.”

Zulum called for the immediate deployment of newly trained specialty guards to help the military defend vulnerable communities.

A decade ago, Boko Haram controlled large areas of Borno state before being pushed back.

Nearly two months after being resettled to rebuild their lives following several years of displacement, residents of Darajamal have suffered a devastating Boko Haram attack that left at least 63 people dead, including five soldiers, according to data from local authorities and sources who spoke to HumAngle.

The assault began on Friday night, Sept. 5, when the terrorists stormed the rural community in Bama Local Government Area, Borno State, in Nigeria’s North East. Modu Gujja, the area council chairman, said the terrorists arrived around 9 p.m., opened fire, and set homes ablaze. At least 24 houses were destroyed.

In the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency over a decade ago, Darajamal became a stronghold for the terrorists and remained deserted for years, even after the military recaptured it in ruins. On July 13, the Borno State government resettled more than 3000 displaced persons from an IDP camp in Bama town into 300 newly constructed housing units in the community.

The recent attack has shattered fragile hopes of stability; it has led to a fresh displacement of about 108 households, according to Gujja. 

Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, who visited the community on Saturday, Sept. 6, confirmed the death toll and the displacement figures. Standing before the remaining residents, he described the incident as “very sad” and a “major setback” for resettlement efforts.

“We are here to commiserate with the people of Darajamal […] This community was settled a few months ago, and they go about their normal activities, but unfortunately, they experienced a Boko Haram attack last night,” Zulum said. 

For residents, the tragedy is a cruel repetition. Kaana Ali, a resident of the village, told journalists that he had resolved to leave for good after losing close family friends, though the governor appealed for him and others to stay. “The governor is still begging us to stay back as more protection would be provided to secure our community,” he said.

Zulum acknowledged the limits of the military’s capacity to secure all vulnerable communities: “We have to take note that the numerical strength of the military is not enough to cover everywhere, so far so good, two sets of Forest Guards have been trained, therefore one of the solutions that we need to implement immediately is to deploy the trained Forest Guards to most of the locations that are vulnerable, they will protect the forest and communities.”

The attack also drew condemnation from Kaka Shehu, who represents the Borno Central senatorial district, which includes Darajamal. He described the killings as a crime against humanity and pledged legislative support for restoring peace in the state.

The massacre in Darajamal comes only a month after Boko Haram struck Kirawa, another resettled border town in neighbouring Gwoza Local Government Area. That attack killed at least four people, displaced hundreds, led to the abduction of a schoolgirl, and left homes, vehicles, and food supplies destroyed. 

In the aftermath, locals in Kirawa told HumAngle that no Nigerian military or Multinational Joint Task Force reinforcements had returned to the community, leaving it without security. Many residents fled across the border into Cameroon, surviving nights in makeshift shelters or the open air before cautiously returning during the day.

The back-to-back attacks underscore the continuing presence of Boko Haram across Borno’s rural communities and highlight the persistent risks undermining the state’s resettlement programmes. Since the start of 2025, multiple repatriated communities have faced renewed violence, leaving many families once again displaced, grieving, and uncertain of the future.

Boko Haram launched a four-hour assault on Kirawa, a border community in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, on Saturday night, Aug. 7, displacing hundreds and leaving a trail of destruction.

Buba Aji, a schoolteacher at Kirawa Central Primary School, had just settled in for a quiet evening with his family. After dinner, they all retired to bed. The beginning of the night was marked by the usual rainy-season chorus of croaking frogs and deep silence. But at about 9 p.m., Buba began to hear distant gunfire. Thirty minutes later, the sounds grew louder and closer.

“Before we knew it, the entire town was filled with the sounds of heavy blasts and gunfire. We could clearly distinguish the exchange of shots between Boko Haram and the soldiers at the barracks. That’s when we knew it was an attack,” he recalled.

Like many residents, Buba fled with his family toward the border between Kirawa and Kerawa in Cameroon, joining hundreds of others fleeing their homes. “It was chaotic, we could see Cameroonian soldiers and members of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) driving in to take positions,” Buba told HumAngle. 

While some families crossed into Cameroon, others remained at the border gate, seeking safety alongside some of the military personnel. Locals who spoke to HumAngle said that the Boko Haram fighters set fire to the house of the community head, looted properties, and burned civilian trucks and homes during the raid. At the MNJTF post, where the fierce battle took place, some military facilities and vehicles were set ablaze or damaged.

Amid the chaos, they abducted a teenage girl, Aisha Mohammed Aja. She recently completed her Junior Secondary School examinations and was awaiting her results. 

Local sources reported that four soldiers were killed in the attack and that no residents died, but HumAngle has been unable to verify this with local authorities. 

Kirawa has endured repeated Boko Haram attacks since it was first overrun in August 2014, forcing residents to flee to Cameroon and other parts of Borno. After residents were repatriated in 2022, the community has suffered multiple attacks this year alone, including deadly raids in February and July. Each attack follows a similar pattern, targeting both military and civilians.

Last year, HumAngle reported extensively on the unsettling realities facing displaced families resettled in Kirawa, who, even a year after their return, continue to face insecurity, poverty, government neglect, and continued displacement. 

More than six million people in the Lake Chad Basin are caught in a cycle of violence, displacement, and ecological disaster.

As Boko Haram exploits shrinking resources and fragile security, communities face impossible choices — return home under threat or stay in limbo.

In this episode of Pinch Point, explore how conflict, climate change, and geopolitics are shaping this crisis.

Renewed violence by armed groups Boko Haram and ISIL (ISIS) has forced thousands of people to leave their homes in Nigeria.

Despite repeated government pledges, the military has been unable to end the unrest.

So why is it continuing – and what threats does it pose?

Presenter: 

Elizabeth Puranam

Guests: 

Kabir Adamu – Managing director at Beacon Security and Intelligence in Abuja

David Otto – Deputy director of counterterrorism training at the International Academy for the Fight Against Terrorism in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Ovigwe Eguegu – Peace and security policy analyst at Development Reimagined in Abuja

A Cameroonian soldier was killed and three others were wounded during a two-night attack by Boko Haram terrorists from 19 to 20 May. The assault occurred in Kerawa, a locality on the border with Nigeria, within the Kolofata sub-division of the Mayo-Sava division in the Far North region.

A member of the local vigilante committee said the assailants, who came from Nigeria, targeted a Cameroonian military post. “After opening fire on the post, the assailants quickly fled towards the Nigeria-Cameroon border,” he stated.

The recent attack highlights an alarming trend, as Boko Haram terrorists have become more aggressive since March, utilising previously unseen sophisticated weaponry during their operations. Notably, one major incident occurred on the night of March 24 to 25, 2025, in Wulgo, in the Logone-et-Chari division, where 12 Cameroonian soldiers lost their lives. 

This week’s deadly assault serves as a reminder that, despite claims of a retreat by the terrorists, the threat they pose remains constant within the Lake Chad Basin. Even with strong responses from the Cameroonian army, Boko Haram continues to conduct violent operations, instilling fear and destabilising the border areas with Nigeria. This comes despite repeated assertions from the military that they have broken the back of Boko Haram in the region.

As part of its intensified violent campaign, Boko Haram/ISWAP increased the deployment of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) along critical highways in the Lake Chad region, especially in Nigeria. Over the past month, numerous IED detonations occurred, resulting in casualties among both civilians and security forces.

Recent developments have seen two significant bridges – one in the Gujiba local government area of Yobe State and the other in the Biu local government area of Borno State – damaged by IED blasts attributed to the terrorist group. These incidents have significantly disrupted mobility, making entire routes perilous and putting commuters at heightened risk of attacks, particularly in resettled communities that are already unstable.

The destruction of these essential infrastructures also threatens humanitarian efforts and the region’s economic stability. Human rights groups, humanitarian organisations, and local media have cautioned for months that resettling populations without adequate security measures may expose them to reprisals and further displacement.