Nigeria: After surviving Boko Haram, returnees face hunger

| May 18, 2015

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Some of the 1.5 million people displaced by Boko Haram have started returning home now that the Nigerian army has begun an offensive. But thousands don’t have enough to eat.

In the last few months, many people have returned to Adamawa State. But there is a lack of health clinics, banks and schools. Vast stretches of farmland between towns are untended. There are still land mines, and the main farming areas are far from military checkpoints.

One returnee, Rebecca Ishaya, says: “We have to stay; we have nowhere to live, no money for rent. We are afraid to farm … about a week ago, a bomb exploded when people went to clear the land. They were hurt.”

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Photo: A woman sits in front of her home, once occupied by Boko Haram in Michika town, after the Nigerian military recaptured it from Boko Haram, in Adamawa state on May 10, 2015. Credit: REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye