A group of farmers from Sokoto state have recounted how they fled to neighbouring Niger Republic at the height of banditry in the state.
The farmers are from Gudu and Tangaza local government areas of the state.
Recalling their ordeal Monday in an interview with the BBC Hausa service, the farmers said the bandits would raid towns in the night and force them to pay huge sums of money or identify the rich among them who would consequently be kidnapped.
One of the returnees, who spoke under anonymity during the interview, said many of them now spent the nights in Niger Republic and return in the morning.
“The situation we find ourselves in the villages of Gudu and Tangaza local governments is indeed terrible.
“Every night, bandits will visit our villages with guns, going from house to house. If you don’t have money to give them, they will force you to show them a rich man in the village for them to kidnap.
“Even on Sunday, they kidnapped two people, and they are yet to release them since they have not paid ransom,” the returnee said.
Amnesty
In a related development, Amnesty International has said the elderly suffered immensely from the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east of Nigeria.
In a 67-report published Monday, AI said many elderly people starved or were slaughtered in their homes or left to languish and die in squalid, unlawful military detention.
It recalled older people’s experience of the conflict, displacement, and detention in Northeast Nigeria.
The report also showed how both Boko Haram and the Nigerian military have ‘committed’ atrocities against older women and men, with no one being held accountable.
It also focused on how displaced elderly people are consistently overlooked by the humanitarian response.
The body said: “Residents’ lives continue to be at great risk every day in Borno State due to the heightened hostile activities of the insurgents.
“Barely two weeks ago, armed men suspected to be Boko Haram, attacked farmers and beheaded at least 43 people while working in their farms.
“Many Nigerians have raised concerns over the violent activities of the insurgents and remain unimpressed with the level of the federal government’s commitment towards ending the decade-old war.”
Despite repeated denials from certain quarters, AI insisted many villages in areas under Boko Haram control were disproportionately populated by older people, who are unable to flee or who choose to stay a
Accuses military
The report further said at different times, the Nigerian Army attacked and unlawfully detained civilians.
AI said: “Nigeria’s military, in turn, has repeatedly shot older people to death in their own homes during raids on villages in Boko Haram-controlled areas. Thousands of older people have been denied dignity in hellish conditions in military detention, with many hundreds of them dying.
“In its operations against Boko Haram, Nigeria’s military frequently fails to distinguish combatants from civilians and at times even deliberately targets civilians – a war crime.
“Many older people with limited mobility are unable to flee and have been shot and killed or seriously injured when soldiers spray bullets through houses. Others have burned to death inside their homes when the military torched villages perceived to support Boko Haram.”
The group also said it found older men and women unlawfully detained – for periods ranging from four months to more than five years – in unfathomably inhumane conditions in Maiduguri’s infamous Giwa Barracks and other sites.
“Severe overcrowding, scarce food and water, extreme heat, infestation by parasites and insects, and lack of access to adequate sanitation and health care are among the litany of violations at Giwa.
“Older detainees described how the grossly inadequate sanitation meant they frequently urinated or defecated on themselves – an assault on their basic dignity.
“In the context of the Boko Haram crisis, at least 10,000 people have died in custody since 2011, many of them in Giwa Barracks. The organisation reviewed more than 120 images of corpses brought from the barracks to a local mortuary, and spoke to individuals with insider knowledge who estimated that 15-25 per cent of those who have perished are older men.
“This is disproportionately high, as older men appear to account for no more than 4 per cent of the population in North-east Nigeria. In April 2017 alone, 166 corpses were transferred from Giwa to the mortuary,” the report further highlighted.
At the humanitarian level, the report said: “Humanitarian agencies estimate that older people account for around 150,000 of the 2.1 million people displaced by the conflict in North-east Nigeria.
“In displacement camps, the failure to ensure that humanitarian aid is adequate and reaches some of the most at-risk people, including older people, has led to the violation of their human rights.”
In the report, AI interviewed older people from 17 camps across Borno state and none of them had received targeted assistance as an older person. They felt invisible or as if they were treated as a “burden”.
Some reported having to beg just to have enough food and medicine to survive. Others said they were forced to go without essential medication.
“Many older women in particular face further challenges as they care for grandchildren whose parents were killed, abducted, or detained by Boko Haram or the Nigerian military.
“Gender discrimination and patriarchal norms in North-east Nigeria pose additional barriers to older women’s participation in processes that impact their lives.
“Nobody is hearing us, nobody is seeing us,” one older woman told the organisation,” the report said.
While recommending sustained data collection and analysis as the first step towards ensuring inclusion of older people, the group said: “Nigerian authorities and humanitarian organizations should follow existing standards and practices by systematically engaging older people – including older women, older people with disabilities, and older people living alone – in assessments and programme design.”
Group urges peace
Meanwhile, the National Interest Forum (NIF) has urged Boko Haram, bandits, kidnappers and other Nigerians that resorted to violence for any perceived grievances to give peace a chance in the country.
NIF is aimed at deepening understanding about the core principle of patriotism and promoting peaceful coexistence amongst Nigerians; to re-orientate and mobilise young people in Nigeria to take lead in the campaign in promoting Nigeria’s corporate entity as a nation taking advantage of their numerical strength and vibrancy.
At a press briefing, Tuesday, NIF National Chairman Shittu Mohammed Kabir also charged the young people and entire citizens to always put the nation first in all dealings and to support the ongoing effort by the present administration aimed at repositioning the country’s economy.
Kabir, who noted that government requires some level of public understanding and support to carry out important economic reform policies, also stressed the need for citizens to conduct and themselves “as a people with common dreams, aspirations and destiny and move us from where we are today to where we ought to be in the years ahead”.
“We reaffirmed our hope and commitment to the unity and co-operate existence of the country as one indivisible entity despite the current security challenges and pledged our continuous cooperation and support to both the legislature and the Executive arm of the government in their bid in stamping out corruption from Nigeria.
“The Forum observed that the inherent socio-economic problems, policy inconsistency and the endemic corruption have combined to deprive the Nigeria Youth the opportunity to realize their potentials and participate fully in the development process which is largely responsible for the current state of insecurity in the country. We called on all groups that have resorted to violence for any perceived injustice or grievances to give peace a chance.”