It was at 11:21 a.m. on Sunday, June 21, that things started to fall apart. Aliyu Muhammad was in the Malali area, Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, working underneath a car when he missed a call from his wife. When he called back, someone else answered and asked him if he knew the owner of the phone. […]
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Fatima ‘Teema’ Mahmud uploaded a short clip on her Telegram Status that morning; it showed a leaked intimate video involving individuals in northern Nigeria. The time was 8:13 a.m.; minutes later, she uploaded another one and another. By midday, she had uploaded dozens of similar pieces of content. By evening, there were hundreds. Some of […]
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A bowl of leftover pap saved Audu Gimba* from being abducted, but his wife, children, and relatives were not as fortunate. On Jan. 18, Audu’s family found their way to the Cherubim & Seraphim (C&S) Movement Church, Number 2, Kurmin Wali, Kaduna State, northwestern Nigeria, like they do every Sunday morning. Around 10:30 a.m., warning […]
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Jaafar Mohammed is 10. He walks 10 kilometres from Lambel, a rural community in Kaduna state, to school every day after tilling the soil with his farmer father. “School has helped me communicate better with people,” a drained Jaafar said weakly. “I believe education will help my future, better my lifestyle, and improve my approach […]
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The first attack on the Mai Ido, a small settlement in Kachia, Kaduna State, northwestern Nigeria, started around 11 a.m. in April 2022. That morning, Rahmatu Aliyu and some relatives had travelled to a neighbouring village to pay a condolence visit to some friends who had lost loved ones to the wave of terror that […]
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Maryam Umar’s* father had faded into the background of her life for the past eight years. Before then, he was a man who flitted between the houses of his two wives in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria. “My mother fell seriously sick and had to be taken back to the village for treatment, but by the time […]
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An attack on the Abuja to Kaduna train line could be imminent, Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency, the Department of State Services (DSS), recently wrote to alert the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC). A coalition of bandits plan to attack the train and kidnap passengers on board for ransom “any moment from now,” warned R.N. Dopemu, the […]
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Until recently, when Rifkatu Dodo sold her food she did not have to be so careful. Every so often someone would eat the beans and yam at her street-side eatery and run away without paying. But it was a rare occurrence. Since the removal of the fuel subsidy, however, the number of people eating and […]
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Rebecca John went into labour in the dead of night. This was not supposed to be unusual at facilities like Kari Kunau Primary Health Centre. But Idris Isah, the In-Charge, was worried. Theirs was a small clinic in a remote part of Lere local government area of Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria. They could hardly store […]
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A man, Usman Shehu Bashir, has been sentenced to death in Zaria, Northwest Nigeria for raping to death a two-year-old girl. The accused was a neighbor of Fatima’s parents at Sabongari area of the town, and had lured the girl into his room where he raped her to death. When her parents noticed that she […]
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From childhood, Hafsatu Muhammed’s future was set – she would become a milkmaid. Being Fulani, Hafsatu came from a nomadic background. As she grew, she had no access to formal education and, soon enough, the life of a milkmaid was the option open to her. It was the same for many others in her shoes. […]
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Endurance had been left behind. Hauwa John only realised when she heard her granddaughter scream. There were the shouts of bloodthirsty terrorists. Then the crackle of flames eating up their house followed. All they could do was press their bodies to the ground in the maize farm, and cry silently in anguish. As other houses […]
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