Nigeria marks one year since Boko Haram jihadists massacred 2,000

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari delivers a speech at the COP 21 United Nations conference on climate change, on November 30, 2015 at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of the French capital Paris. A year after an attack ranked among the worst in Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency, Baga in northeast Nigeria is a ghost town. PHOTO | JACQUES DEMARTHON | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The jihadists razed the fishing hub on the shores of Lake Chad in a four-day assault beginning January 3, 2015, killing hundreds and forcing thousands from their homes.
  • The Nigerian government has acknowledged the monumental task of getting displaced people like those in Baga back home, but has not yet given a concrete plan on how to tackle the issue.

KANO

A year after an attack ranked among the worst in Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency, Baga in northeast Nigeria is a ghost town.

The jihadists razed the fishing hub on the shores of Lake Chad in a four-day assault beginning January 3, 2015, killing hundreds and forcing thousands from their homes.

Unlike other Boko Haram attacks, which go virtually unnoticed outside Nigeria, the Baga massacre made headlines around the world after it was reported that 2,000 people lost their lives and Amnesty International released satellite images showing the ravaged town.

With its ruined houses and shattered businesses, it is hard to believe Baga used to be a lively trading centre of 200,000 people, where merchants would travel to sell cattle, leather goods and fresh produce.

“Baga is still deserted. We are living in camps and homes of friends and relatives in Maiduguri because we are scared,” Muhammad Alhaji Bukar, a displaced Baga resident said.

The military reclaimed Baga in March and troops patrol its dusty streets today.

But the town’s enduring emptiness — under 1,000 people are living there now — highlights the difficulties of convincing residents to return and restore peace to the battered region.

In June, destitute residents of Baga and surrounding villages started trickling back to fish, encouraged by military victories.

They would sell their catch of catfish and bonytongue in Maiduguri, the spiritual home of the insurgency and the restive capital of Borno state.

In the window of calm, about 5,000 residents returned to Baga. But the peace did not last long.

In July, Boko Haram ambushed a lorry carrying returnees, killing eight.

In the days that followed, the militants slit the throats of several fishermen and killed farmers who had returned to harvest their melons.

The army and forces from neighbouring countries, have been able to flush Boko Haram from captured towns, but is not able to stop the jihadists from regrouping in villages and bush.

Spurned not crushed, the militants had found cover near Baga in the little islands lined with tall grass that dot the freshwater lake.

NO RELENTING

As Bukar Kori, head of the Baga’s traders union, put it: “We can’t return to Baga yet. It is not safe, especially with Boko Haram lurking on nearby islands.”

Today, an estimated 700 people are living in Baga, with the majority the town’s former residents staying in Maiduguri.

The city’s population has almost doubled from two million since 2009, when Boko Haram embarked on its bloody quest to establish an independent Islamic state.

The extremist insurgency has forced over 2.5 million people — just over the population of Paris — living in the Lake Chad Basin to flee, according to a December report issued by Usaid.

While the government insists that Boko Haram has been largely defeated going into 2016, the group continues to wreak havoc by sending out suicide bombers, sometimes in droves.

Last Sunday, the militants invaded Maiduguri unleashing dozens of suicide bombers, killing 22.

The Nigerian government has acknowledged the monumental task of getting displaced people like those in Baga back home, but has not yet given a concrete plan on how to tackle the issue.

“There is still a lot of work to be done in the area of security,” President Muhammadu Buhari said in a New Year’s statement.

“This government will not consider the matter concluded until the terrorists have been routed and normalcy restored to the country.”