DHAKA: Fati Adamu has not seen three of her six children nor her husband since Boko Haram fighters attacked her hometown in northeast Nigeria in a hail of gunfire.
Two years on, she is among thousands of refugees at the Bakassi camp in Maiduguri, the city worst hit by a seven-year-old conflict that has forced more than two million people to flee their homes.
The United Nations says 400,000 children are now at risk from a famine in the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe - 75,000 of whom could die from hunger within the next few months, reports the Al Jazeera.
A push against the fighters by the Nigerian army and soldiers from neighbouring countries has enabled troops to enter remote parts of the northeast in the last few months, revealing tens of thousands on the brink of starvation - and countless families torn apart.
“I do not know if they are dead or alive,” Adamu, 35, said of her missing relatives.
There is a renewed threat of Boko Haram attacks. The start of the dry season has seen a surge in suicide bombings, some of which have targeted refugee camps, including one at Bakassi in October that killed five people.
The World Food Programme said it provides food aid to 4.50 lakh people in Borno and Yobe. About 200,000 of them receive $54 each month to buy food, soon to rise to $73.
At least 15 camps, mostly on the outskirts of Maiduguru, the Borno state capital, are home to thousands of people unable to return home and surviving on food rations.
At one known as New Prison, women and children visibly outnumber men, many of whom were killed by Boko Haram or are missing.
One man - Bukaralhaji Bukar, 45, who has eight children from his two wives - said the food he buys with the monthly stipend finishes within two weeks.
“We are suffering. It is not enough,” said Bukar, who begs on the street to make money.
In the centre of Maiduguri, life seems to be returning to normal. Food markets are bustling but soldiers in pick-up trucks clutching rifles are reminders of the need for vigilance.
BDST: 2111 HRS, DEC 02, 2016
BD
