"It's been more than 10 years since Isa Aji Mohammed lost four of his children in one night when Boko Haram fighters attacked their home in northeast Nigeria's Borno State. Maryam, who was 15 at the time, was killed alongside her brothers Mohammed, 22, and Zubairu, who was only 10. Yadoma, 25 and married with children, who had returned home to her parents' house for a visit, also died in the attack."
"We ran with nothing, said 65-year-old Isa, standing on the parched soil of his farm in the Lake Chad village of Malam Fatori, to which he recently returned. For more than 10 years, we slept in relatives' homes. I felt like a stranger in my own country. Before the deadly attack, Isa, a farmer, produced hundreds of bags of rice, maize and beans annually, enough to feed his family and sell in markets in neighbouring Niger."
Isa Aji Mohammed lost four children in a single Boko Haram attack more than ten years ago and fled across the border. He spent a decade in displacement camps and recently returned to Malam Fatori under a government resettlement programme. Before the attack his farms produced hundreds of bags of rice, maize and beans for family use and sale in neighbouring Niger. The village previously had productive irrigation canals, active markets and free movement between communities. The town now bears visible scars, parched fields, and the urgent need to rebuild livelihoods and community life.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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