I took the road from Diffa at the border of Niger and Nigeria, beyond the troubled town of Bosso in 2013.
I went as a freelance with an UNHCR assignment in a region too dangerous for international organizations and foreigners in general to be present. Actually, extremelly dangerous for the local population too. This is what I went to document. With the consent of some local Boko Haram leaders I witnessed the endemic poverty of the people, struggling around lake Chad, one of the water basins strained by high ranking economic interests and that left population at the brink of starvation. The struggle between government armies in three countries and the militias of Boko Haram and some other local groups sparked from this fight for survival. The humanitarian consequences and the cruelty of the conflict I witnessed are only briefly sketched in this UNHCR book.
Lake Chad dwellers live one of the worst situations of this century. This is one of the big consequences of the human depleting of natural resources and its catastrophic impact on the empoverished local population.
Download the book, “I Had To Leave…North Nigeria”, a collection of testimonies of Nigerian refugees who have left the three North-Eastern states of Yobe, Borno, Adamawa (Nigeria) placed under emergency rule since May 2013 and who sought refuge in Niger.
“Roads are universes of mixed feelings and strong encounters between love and hatred.”
