From Gwoza Killing Field to Misery in Abuja

Our reporter had an encounter with some of them and they recounted pitiful stories of narrow escape from the fangs of death and of hunger and starvation; destitution and disease in the suburbs of Abuja. Hussaina Ibrahim is a mother of four children, who hurriedly left Pulka, her village, when Boko Haram insurgents invaded Gwoza, […]

Our reporter had an encounter with some of them and they recounted pitiful stories of narrow escape from the fangs of death and of hunger and starvation; destitution and disease in the suburbs of Abuja.

Hussaina Ibrahim is a mother of four children, who hurriedly left Pulka, her village, when Boko Haram insurgents invaded Gwoza, in August maiming and killing innocent persons and razing down houses and shops. She said they lost relations and they had to flee for their dear lives.

“We fled in August, one fateful Tuesday, when the terrorists invaded our village and killed a lot of our people. We ran to the mountains and from there trekked to Kirewa, and from there to Kurfata all in Cameroon. We slept in the bush for two weeks before we reached Mokolo, where there is a refugees camp. But less than a week in the camp, we came face to face with death. Cholera and measles were killing people; mostly children and women.Ten to 15 corpses were buried every day at the camp and my husband decided that we flee back to Nigeria. Eleven of us, my husband and I, four of our children and five dependants set out on the road to Mubi. We spent another week on the road then we entered Nigeria. We were famished and weary but the desire to live kept us on,” she said.
From Mubi they found their way to the capital city, Abuja, where they are squatting in a shanty, sleeping on the bare floor 11 of them, at Waru village, near Apo.
Rocking her crying baby, Hussaina said coming to Abuja was like jumping from frying pan to fire. “Life is difficult here. There is no food to eat, no work to do; no medicine to treat malaria. We sleep in mosquitoes-infested kiosk because we have no where to go. Possibly we can’t go back to Pulka because we lost everything and life there can never be the same, even if government restores peace there,” she said.
Acccording to her, since they arrived Abuja, it was only once that rice and some money was shared to them-sent by Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume for the displaced persons in the FCT and environs. She appealed to the government to provide food and accomodation for them and work out a means of getting their children back into school as she would not want to go back to Gwoza again.
“How I wish I can erase Gwoza from my memory. It’s a nightmare, it represents horror for me and I don’t wish to go back there even though it’s my village,” Hussaina added
Hussaina is not the only one in dire need of decent accomodation, food and medicare at the Waru village where the displaced persons have unofficially congregated. Thomas James, a young man who is also displaced from Gwoza and appeared to be the leader of the displaced said at least 300 persons, including children and women slept on bare floor in kiosks, uncompleted buildings, football viewing centres and in taxis.
He said besides accomodation, there is immediate need for food, adding that since they took delivery of 42 bags of maize and N207, 000 from Senator Ndume at Sallah, no charity has come their way.
“We are hungry and sick but there is no food and there is no money to go to hospital. Worst of all, most of us are agile young men but there is no work, no source of livelihood,” Thomas said.
According to him, he has been displaced for the past one year now but every passing day looks grimmer and grimmer, with no hope of a better life. “Life is becoming tougher and tougher everyday. Our people are coming from Cameroon everyday and the more they come, the more it becomes difficult for us to accomodate and feed them. We had free accomodation in Wassa but now they are collecting N20,000 to N30,000 from us,”he said.
He lamented that some of his people have just arrived from Cameroon, having trekked for days, with swollen legs and fatique but there is no means of providing medicines and healthcare to them.
At Masaka, too, the story is the same. At least over 400 persons, most of them women and children are taking refuge at the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, Masaka Riverside. Sunday Trust met with Rev. Ibrahim Dawa (rtd), an octagenarian, who said he was the Lawan (village head) of Amuda in Gwoza local government of Borno State before he was displaced by Boko Haram.
He said he has been displaced for the past four months when the insurgents stormed Amuda, looted his livestock, grains and other belongings and set his house ablaze. He said he narrowly escaped to Cameroon with his family of nine. “We hid in the mountains and then crossed over to Cameroon, where we climbed bikes to Mubi. After two days, we got a vehicle to Masaka here. I don’t have money to rent a house but a good Samaritan has given me accomodation for the time being. That is how we are living at the mercy of God. We are suffering but we thank God we are still alive. We are starving and after going through so much hardship, we are also not well but there is no money to go to hospital,” Dawa said.
He also said because of the suffering he and his family are going through, he feels like going back but there is nothing for him to fall back on, adding that his situation is more precarious because where he lived at Bayan Dutse, Gwoza East, chritstians are hunted down and killed like animals by the terrorists. He however said that at Gwoza Central, the terrorists were not discriminating, they were killing every soul in their sight.
“We have never experienced this kind of absurdity. As an elder of 80 I have never for once thought that one day a group will just wake up and start killing people senselessly on the basis of religion.We want government to set up a military barracks in Gwoza East otherwise the area will never know peace, even after Boko Haram crisis, because many wicked people have armed themselves,” he added.  
The old man also appealed to government to look for a way of providing farms for them around Abuja and Nassarawa state so that they can engage in gainful ventures as a means of fending for themselves.
“We are farmers and we are appealing to government to come to our aid. The government should provide land and agricultural inputs to us so that we will farm and take care of ourselves,” he said.
 The story of hunger and starvation; destitution and disease cuts across the population of the displaced persons but that of Hannatu Ishaku, a 58-year old widow rends the heart. Grief-stricken, even after months of fleeing from the killing fields in Gwoza, the widow narrated how the insurgents raided her village, Atagara, in Gwoza at dawn and killed her husband, and how she fled to Cameroon.
“I can’t forget that day because I suffered a lot. I and six of my children trekked through the mountains from Atagara to Mazagwa in Cameroon. For three weeks we were trekking and sleeping in the bush. From Mazagwa we went to Mokolo but we had nowhere to lay our heads, so instead of dying of hunger in a foreign country, we found our way back to Mubi in Adamawa State. From there we got transport to Masaka here, where my daughter is living. We sleep in a single room, seven of us, and it is not easy feeding but we thank God we are alive. What I don’t know is for how long shall we continue living like this? We cannot go back to Gwoza because there is no living soul there now, only the insurgents,” she lamented.
She said she has been suffering from what she suspects to be malaria fever but all she can do is to go to a chemist and get some pharmaceutical drugs, which has not helped her much.
She also appealed to the government to intensify efforts to end the crisis and retrieve their homes and farms so that they can go back and live normal lives.
For Fatimatu Umaru, a mother of five, she is almost dying of fear of the unknown, as a few days ago, soldiers stormed the Durumi santuary and killed four of the displaced persons.Looking famished with sunken eyes and pale skin, a malnourished baby in her arms, Fatimatu recounted how soldiers raided the Durumi slum, where about 200 of the displaced persons from Borno and Adamawa have been taking refuge in uncompleted buildings, abandoned cars and shanties, killed four persons and took away about 142 men.
“After Boko Haram pursued us from our villages and we fled to the capital city, we are still being hunted down by soldiers who should protect us from terrorists. Where do we go from here? Is Nigeria no longer our country?” Fatimatu, who said she fled from Hausari, Gwoza queried.
She lamented that they lacked beddings and as such they sleep on bare floor in an uncompleted storey building, where mosquitoes torment them at night and they live in perpetual fear of invasion by soldiers. She said that as a result of the fear of the unknown, after those arrested by soldiers last week were released, most people have relocated to other places. Only those of them who do not have anywhere to go are still suqatting there.
She pleaded that government should look into their affairs and find a way of alleviating their suffering. “We live at the mercy of God. If our husbands go out and they are able to get menial jobs or somebody gives them N100 or N200 we survive for that day,” she said, adding that her child had been sick but there was no money to take her to hospital.
James Yaga is the Secretary of a committee set up by Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume to distribute relief material to the displaced people of Gwoza squatting on the fringes of Abuja. He, too is a displaced person. He said life has been extremely difficult for the over 3,000 persons scattered in the villages and slums on the fringes of Abuja. He said they are scattered around Masaka, Maraba, Auta Balefi, Garaku, Jankanwa, Luvu, Talma, Takwa and Kwoya in Nassarawa state; while others are languishing in abject poverty and destitution in Durumi, Waru, Wassa, Kuchingoro, Zinda, Mentu, Dakwa and Bwari in the FCT.
“The numbers are increasing everyday with the need for shelter, food, clothing and medicare for the displaced also becoming dire. So far we have only had support from our Senator and the member House of Representatives. So we are appealing to the federal government to come to our aid,’’ Yaga said.
With the appalling conditions the displaced persons are living in, the purported ceasefire between government troops and the dread Boko Haram insurgents will come as a respite. Many would not hesistate to go back home and rummage through the rubble of their destroyed compounds for crumbs to survive.