Boko Haram atrocities haunt Cameroon’s displaced

AFP, KOZA, Cameroun: “Boko Haram butchered nine people in front of me. That day I decided to leave my village,” says Rachel Daviguidam, still devastated by the carnage she witnessed in September 2015.
One year on and this 30-year-old Cameroonian is still unable to get the images out of her mind.
And this mother of seven cannot see herself returning to her village of Golvadi in Cameroon’s Far North, an area that has suffered multiple attacks by Boko Haram jihadists based just across the border in Nigeria.
Over the past year, Daviguidam and her husband and children have been living in Koza, a small town surrounded by mountains about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Maroua, capital of the Far North region.
Around 200,000 Cameroonians from the region have fled their villages in fear of the violence carried out by militants from Boko Haram, who last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Jihadists in this region kill, they torch entire villages, they loot and they steal livestock.
Sitting on the ground in Koza’s stadium, this young mother cradles her youngest, who is just three months old, occasionally breastfeeding him.

 

Boko Haram atrocities haunt Cameroons displaced

AFP, KOZA, Cameroun: Boko Haram butchered nine people in front of me. That day I decided to leave my village, says Rachel Daviguidam, still devastated by the carnage she witnessed in September 2015. One year on and this 30-year-old Cameroonian is still unable to get the images out of her mind. And this mother of seven cannot see herself returning to her village of Golvadi in Cameroons Far North, an area that has suffered multiple attacks by Boko Haram jihadists based just across the border in Nigeria. Over the past year, Daviguidam and her husband and children have been living in Koza, a small town surrounded by mountains about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Maroua, capital of the Far North region. Around 200,000 Cameroonians from the region have fled their villages in fear of the violence carried out by militants from Boko Haram, who last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Jihadists in this region kill, they torch entire villages, they loot and they steal livestock. Sitting on the ground in Kozas stadium, this young mother cradles her youngest, who is just three months old, occasionally breastfeeding him.