Boko Haram: Broken residents return to Katarko

Life seems to be returning to normal in Katarko, a boundary town located on the fringes  of southern Yobe, which witnessed horror in 2014. During the  attack by Boko Haram, many residents, while 218 women and children were abducted. The insurgents also  blew up the only bridge linking the town to other parts of the […]

Life seems to be returning to normal in Katarko, a boundary town located on the fringes  of southern Yobe, which witnessed horror in 2014. During the  attack by Boko Haram, many residents, while 218 women and children were abducted. The insurgents also  blew up the only bridge linking the town to other parts of the state .
The town is full to capacity which allows business activities to thrive and this could not have happened in the last two years. Now the weekly market has  reopened, hawkers roam the streets, moving, selling wares, and destroyed structures are turning into homes for  the  residents who have started to return .
“We are afraid to sleep at night, thinking the attackers might strike again,” said Jummai Goni, 45, and a mother-of-seven ,who  was abducted along with her children in February, 2014.
Jummai who lives with the memory  of the  Boko Haram invasion, said the militants assembled them at the town’s central mosque, and slit the throats of their loved ones, right before their eyes.
“They lined up 27 men who were husbands to some of us and slaughtered them one after another like rams. They threw them inside a concrete well in front of the little children,” she said sobbing.
She said the perpetrators had a  field day uninterrupted, laughing and shooting inside the concrete well, as they dropped their husband’s corpses in the  well.
 She said the gunmen were about 30 in number, some with camouflage while others were in mufti, holding rifles. According to her, they accused the villagers of worshipping the military  and not the Almighty for which they ruled that their  punishment was total destruction  because they were infidels.
 Hours later, they turned to the women and asked them to follow them. They trekked a long distance and gathered them close to the edge of Katarko bridge, which they deliberately destroyed to make their stronghold inaccessible for military operations.
 Jummai said around 3:00am,  the militants took  them across the bridge. They packed them inside ambulances and drove them in batches to Buni Yadi town, the headquarters of Gujba Local Government Area in Yobe state.
On arrival, Jummai said the militants divided them into three groups and detained them in three big apartments which  were separated by moderate walls. “We slept on a bare floor without blankets or mats, despite the seasonal wind and intense harmattan.
“We were being fed with the rice and beans they stole from our silos. After 19 days in their custody, we ran out of food,and then  they gave us raw maize and salt to cook for ourselves. Instead, we protested,” she explained.
 She said, a day later, the Amir (Leader of the militants) came and singled them out, saying he would not force any of them to stay in the camp.
 “He said that those who want to pursue the cause of Allah should form a group. We all declined his offer, except  a few others that were afraid. He ordered that we should be released the following morning, ,since we chose to remain with the ‘devils in Damaturu’.
 “We all thought they were going to kill us, but a militant that hails from our village (Lawali) said we shouldn’t panic, they could not kill anybody. He confirmed  that a group of women had  left days earlier and none in the group was killed”, she revealed.
She said some of the militants did  not agree with  the decision to release them, so they misdirected them to a thick forest where they ambushed them.
“They gathered us again and threatened that we don’t have a hiding place, and that they would meet us in the devil’s den (Damaturu) and kill us,” she recalled, adding that one of the militants shouted, “Those of you with babies should drop them and go”.
Jummai said the militants forcefully seized eight under-five children from nursing mothers and left. According to her, one of the captives, Hajja Rahama had two children; 7-year-old Lado and 2-year-old Banine. “So she surrendered the eldest and held the little one tightly.”
“Hajja Rahman and Banine were crying, holding each other tight when the merciless militants  forcefully separated them and threatened to slaughter the boy. Everybody was crying, including one of the militants. She later became depressed and left to an unknown destination,” she recalled.
Jummai said that  after a dangerous  long journey which lasted one week, they arrived in a village where they sought refuge. The Village Head contacted security operatives who picked them up, screened them for some possible ailments, and re-united them with their families.
“We saw hell on the journey back home. We couldn’t figure out any direction to take. We had no water and no food. Some of the little children died even before the merciless militants intercepted us. We couldn’t even bury them because we didn’t have the energy. Here we are today, all diagnosed with hypertension, while others scream in their asleep and wake to speak of terrifying nightmares,” she said.
She said many of them had refused to eat food when they were been held, worried about the conditions of their loved ones.
“Some of our male children were detained in the next house. They fed them very little food and stopped  us anytime we attempted giving them food. Now, few of us have returned home with the female children.”
Jummai said she was impressed with the way the military handled their  situation, saying “it has saved lives.”
“The soldiers picked us from a bush near Lamisiri village. They settled us in a camp for almost three weeks, feeding us well and ran some medical tests on especially the elderly among us. They said many of us have BP (High Blood Pressure), and uptill now, we do go for check up,” she said.
Weeks after the military re-united them with their families, her husband, Malam Goni Katarko, a 50-year-old amputee, promised that he would fend for them and make their lives different from those  of the Internally Displaced Persons.
“He resisted the idea of staying in the IDPs camp and promised more dignified living conditions for all of us. One day he told me that soldiers manning the area have cleared him to cultivate his farmland. After harvest, he convinced me to relocate back to the village. We are the first people that returned and today several others are gradually returning.”
 
Life in the destroyed town
 When Daily Trust on Sunday visited Katarko, Malam Goni Katarko was found standing on the veranda of his destroyed house, looking very determined to make it habitable. “Anybody who has seen such a terrible thing must be afraid to return, but it’s the only option we have,” he said.
Goni who lamented the approach taken by government to ease the plights of IDPs, described it as counter-productive.
“Majority of the IDPs are living in self-established camps. They rely on government to give them food, water and drugs, but it’s always inadequate. That is why I reached out to the military for access to my farmland. They later encouraged me to return with my family. Today, several others have returned.
Goni said they are hapless because Boko Haram militants razed the whole town. “My wife and children are now occupying a room that was not badly destroyed in the neighbourhood. I don’t know the next step to take, should the house owners decide to return soon.”
He complained that no government, donor agency or philanthropist has visited the town, throughout their four months’ stay there.
“We have nobody to complain to. Our water sources are polluted, we can’t use our wells because the insurgents threw dead bodies inside and the only borehole we use has spoiled. It was drilled by Dr. Yerima Ngama, a philanthropist,” he said.
Another resident, Abubakar Jabbara, said the damage caused by the insurgents on the houses is beyond imagination. “The insurgents burnt down the houses and the overhanging structures were pulled down by rainfall. Most people sleep outside and we are keeping our fingers crossed as we wait for government intervention.
“We don’t have the resources to repair these houses and government is not willing to come and help. The  Borno State government is busy building homes and schools for the IDPs even before they return, but no government official has come to see us yet. We were forced out of Damaturu because we don’t have food and cannot pay rent,” he said. 
He said they live  a degraded life in the village because they don’t have a  hospital, food, water and schools for their children. The schools have been occupied by the military ,and the hospital is empty.
“Most of the elderly women abducted by the insurgents are battling with high blood pressure and other health challenges, but we have no health facility, no doctor or nurse. Some of the women died from high blood pressure and others were  paralyzed.”
Muhammadu Tahir, an operator of the only operational borehole in the town, said it has gone bad and they don’t have money to repair it. That is why many people resorted to buying water from wash borehole, which is not always hygienic.
“The borehole was functional when we returned. We taxed ourselves stipends to make minor repairs, but the stop-curve spoiled, and it’s very expensive. We can`t afford the N3000 to replace it. Very little water runs through the tap sometimes. So all these people you see are waiting for the water,  because they don’t have money to buy from the private borehole,” he said.
Goni Ibrahim, a private wash borehole operator, who makes brisk business selling water to the returnees, said at least a  hundred people patronize him every day.
 “A jerry-can is sold for N5 and a cart pusher pays N25 to buy. At least one hundred people patronize us everyday. People usually suffer  whenever this borehole develops a  fault, because we spend  days to fix it.
“Before, people rely on dug wells in their homes but the militants have deposited dead bodies inside.So, people decide to sand fill the wells and depend on the boreholes,” he said.
Our correspondent who went round the town, observed that virtually all the existing structures, which  include  houses, shops and government properties had been destroyed.
Many houses were completely razed down, some further damaged by the seasonal rainfall. The returnees fixed and sheltered their families in few houses that were not badly destroyed. Shrubs grow in many places making the town look like a relic of war.
Most of the returnees have complained  of hunger,  lack of access to portable drinking water, medical care and difficulty in living with fear and health challenges, despite the security provided to them by the military in the area.
Some returnees are also determined to fend for themselves. They engage  in  handcrafts and businesses, in  calabash carving and designs, tailoring, and bicycle  repairs.
To rebuild their livelihoods, some of the returnees told this reporter that they depend on land for subsistence farming. But land mines and unexploded ordinances planted by the insurgents, have prevented them from the full time practice.
However, to get rid of criminals, they set up a local investigation committee that involved local hunters, to screen people with questionable characters.
“Anybody with questionable characters has  to swear by the Holy Qur’an that he has no connection whatsoever with Boko Haram and he will not expose or harbour any of them, before we allow him to stay,” Lawan Muhammad said.
The Village Head of Katarko, Lawani Abba Gana, said he wouldn’t return to the town yet, because of the condition of his palace.
“The entire building was pulled down,” he said, adding, “Affected traditional rulers are making efforts to see how they can present pressing issues bothering our people, to the government for immediate response.”
Alhaji Ahmadu Ibrahim, a Sociology lecturer at Yobe State University, said there was need to support the returnees, by providing enduring solutions to their plight.
“These people are already traumatized by the horrendous abuses and unspeakable cruelty at the hands of Boko Haram militants, which has caused immense suffering. So, government and all other stakeholders involved should as a matter of urgency, provide durable solution to these people.
“They need to be sheltered, provided with at least the basic means of livelihood; effective healthcare delivery and sufficient food supply, to enhance their mental capacity and increase their productivity,” he said.