In Nigeria, the difficult return to life of the inhabitants of Maiduguri, haunted by Boko Haram

By Liza Fabbian

Published today at 7:00 p.m.

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In Maiduguri, the downtown avenues are lined with lush trees and ornate lampposts. At the end of the afternoon, football tournaments are organized on the esplanade of the imposing Central Mosque, inaugurated in 2019. As for the brand new urban viaduct, decorated with frescoes in bright colors, it has become a place for walking popular with onlookers. The passage of an army pick-up topped with a machine gun, however, quickly brings us back to reality: that of a city surrounded by trenches and watched night and day by the military.

The price of certain basic products has tripled in a few years, in particular due to the insecurity that reigns throughout Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria.
Mohammad Abdulahi, 30, keeps with his family this building called

Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, was the birthplace of Boko Haram. For more than a decade, the region has lived in the shadow of the Islamist sect and under the threat of its abuses. A reality that the successive governors of the State try to make forget with blows of large “development projects”, which amount to several billion naira. Elected in 2019, Babagan Zulum follows in the footsteps of his predecessor, Kashim Shettima, by defending “a vision of what Borno could be like in twenty years. A Borno that would reconnect with its long history, to once again become “the home of peace”, “the abode of peace”, which is the official motto of the Federated State”, explains Vincent Hiribarren, director of the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), located in Ibadan (south-west Nigeria) and specialist in the history of the region.

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Despite the efforts of local leaders to make Maiduguri “the showcase of Borno”, peace and security are relative notions. Security incidents regularly remind us of the vulnerability of the regional capital. Thus, on December 23, 2021, several explosions sounded in the city, barely an hour before the arrival of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, on an official visit. Rockets fired by jihadists hit two residential neighborhoods. Four people – a woman and her three children – lost their lives in this attack, eight others were injured. This attack probably targeted Maiduguri airport, which also serves as a base for the Nigerian air force, at the heart of the military strategy against Boko Haram.

Sabotage of two electric towers

The city has been almost completely cut off from the national electricity grid for a year. In January 2020, jihadists from the Islamic State group in West Africa (Iswap) – a faction resulting from the split from Boko Haram in 2016 – claimed responsibility for the sabotage of two electric towers about fifty kilometers from the city. Two months of work were needed to repair the damaged infrastructure in this very exposed area. Finally restored, the current was cut again three days later, after a new sabotage operation carried out by Iswap.

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