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

Parliza Fabbian (Maiduguri, Nigeria, Special Envoy)

Posted on January 18, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. - Updated on January 20, 2022 at 05:34

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REPORTING BIND, inflation, power cuts: the capital of the state of Borno, bereaved by more than ten years of jihadist abuses, is still vulnerable.

In Maiduguri (Nigeria), the avenues of the city center are lined with lush trees and worked lamps.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 bright colors, it has become a place of walkprized by onlookers.The passage of an army pick-up surmounted by a machine gun, however, quickly brings back to reality: that of a city surrounded by trenches and supervised night and day by the military.

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Maiduguri, the capital of the state of Borno, saw Boko Haram born.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 are trying to make people forget large "development projects", which amount to several billion Nairas, the Nigerian currency.Elected in 2019, Babagana Zulum walks in the footsteps of his predecessor, Kashim Shettima, defending "a vision of what Borno could be in twenty years.A Borno who would reconnect with his long history, to become “The Home of Peace”, “La Demeure de la Paix” again, which is the official motto of the federated state, ”explains Vincent Hiribarren, director of the French Research InstituteIn Africa, located in Ibadan (southwest Nigeria), and specialist in the history of the region.

Despite the efforts of local leaders to make Maiduguri "La Vitrine du Borno", peace and security are all relative concepts.Security incidents regularly recall the vulnerability of the regional capital.

On December 23, 2021, several explosions resounded in the city, barely an hour before the arrival of Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, on an official visit.Racks drawn by the jihadists have affected two residential districts.Four people - a woman and her three children - lost their lives, eight others were injured.This attack probably aimed at Maiduguri's airport, which also serves as a basis for Nigerian aviation, 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 network for a year.In January 2021, the jihadists of the Islamic State group in West Africa (ISWAP) - a faction resulting from the split of Boko Haram in 2016 - claimed the sabotage of two electric towers about fifty kilometers away.Two months of work were necessary to repair damaged infrastructure in this highly exposed area.Finally restored, the current was again interrupted three days later, after a new sabotage operation carried out by the ISWAP.

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