We had a good time and even attended school when we were in Dalori. But the coming of Boko Haram forced us to leave the area. We trudged down to Maiduguri town and stayed with relatives in a customs area before coming to the camp. We lived in the camp for over nine years, and I continued my studies from the common entrance to finishing my WAEC.
Now that we’ve come back to our area, we don’t have enough care like we had in the camp, and we also don’t have good schools. Before the insurgency, I was a little girl and didn’t know any business. We really feel bad about the coming of this insurgency, and we lost our valuables in our houses because Boko Haram stole all our properties. We have a borehole, but we still don’t have adequate access to water.
After we came back, NEMA started helping us with foodstuffs, but now they’ve stopped, and we’re not getting any support from anyone. Before we were displaced, our parents had farms and a lot of sheep, but the sheep were forcefully taken. Boko Haram took all of them.
We need support for what we lost; it would definitely help us. We don’t have any farms close to us, and we need security support to go to our farm safely and come back. Women here farm to find money for themselves. If they had capital or some animals to start with, it would help. Sometimes we hear gunshots and bomb blasts, but not frequently. If there’s a problem, we tell our Bulama to forward it to the security.
Some people are illiterate and might be tempted to become criminals for money. If they were educated, they wouldn’t do that. The only business thriving here is the provision shops. We need capital and security support.
Initially, we were afraid of the repentant Boko Haram members, but now we’re one community. We have forgiven them, and we are living peacefully with them.
As narrated by: Aisha ‘Bintu’ Mala (Maiduguri, Nigeria).
This snippet is published as part of a series, The Day Boko Haram Attacked.
Published by