"I Saw Boko Haram Kill My Parents" ... 19 Year Old Survivor

"When Boko Haram attacked [the town of] Madagali they rounded us up and then shot my father," says Rejoice, 19, a student. "Then right in front of me they burnt my mother alive."
Rejoice was freed and subsequently spent weeks on the run, hiding in the bush and crossing rivers.
Along with others from Madagali they survived by digging up yams from hastily abandoned farms.
"I could hardly eat because of what I saw and even now in the camp I don't feel like eating food," the traumatised teenager says. She is now alone with no relatives.
There are many children who have lost contact with their parents, as well as mothers and fathers who have no idea what has happened to their sons and daughters among more than 4,500 displaced people here.
"There was panic in Michika as people heard that Boko Haram were coming," says Sauki, recalling the day in early September when the jihadists captured another town near the Cameroonian border.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has announced a caliphate in areas that the militants control

  Government troops are battling to defeat the well-armed insurgents

"We all ran but my mother did not want to leave."
Her eyes welling up with tears, Sauki is desperate for news of what happened to her.
"I met a woman who told me she saw my mother when they were hiding in the fields and my mother begged her for some food which they shared.
"But I don't know where she is now. I've no way of reaching my mother - she doesn't have a phone," Sauki tells me.
There is a dire need for help with tracing relatives but with so many areas too dangerous to reach as the war rages on, Sauki and other shattered families can get little help for now.
"I want to believe that where their parents are hiding now is very difficult terrain," says Haruna Hamman Furo of Adamawa State's Emergency Management Agency.
"They are on top of mountains and some have crossed over into neighbouring countries of Cameroon and Chad so communication is very difficult."

Many of the displaced have been uprooted several times

The short-term chances of displaced people being able to return to their homes are slim

Mr Furo says that the task may be easier "at the end of the day when things settle down".
For several years people have been running from the brutal Boko Haram attacks and then - when possible - returning home as soon as they feel it is safe.
But the situation has now changed. The jihadists are holding territory so entire communities have run away and have no idea when they can return - hence the need for these camps in cities like Maiduguri and Yola.
Many of those fleeing have been uprooted over and over again. Amos Amthe says that Boko Haram members overran Gwoza town in August, moving into his home and forcing his family to run from the guns three more times. Sometimes they fled with the soldiers.
Captured military hardware "I saw a group of soldiers running out of Michika, some on motorbikes and other vehicles," he says.

 

There are regular new arrivals to camps for displaced people

"I asked one of them what was happening and he told me it was tough at the other side so I said: "Soldier do I have to relocate?" He said I'd better so I had no other choice than to follow."
A video shot by Boko Haram as they captured Gwoza shows the size of the arsenal at their disposal.
Among the military hardware captured from the army are armoured personnel carriers and even a tank.
A cameraman zooms in on what appear to be several Nigerian soldiers being shot at as they run into the rocky hills that surround the town.
The insurgents can then be seen looting the armoury by torchlight at night.
There have been many instances of soldiers complaining that they have not had the resources to take on Boko Haram fighters but the government says that is being fixed.