Nigeria: ’When the bandits came, people were slaughtered’
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00:00 flying in to the far northwestern corner of Nigeria,
00:04 to Sokoto State, a zone bordering Niger,
00:07 and at the mercy of ruthless criminal gangs
00:10 who control swathes of territory.
00:12 Bandits who pillage, kidnap and kill in the northwest
00:16 are judged a bigger security threat
00:18 than Boko Haram militants further east.
00:21 On the outskirts of Sokoto City lies a widow's camp.
00:27 Women who fled the bandits.
00:29 Their husbands murdered or missing.
00:32 65-year-old Hawa was shot and then injured in a chase
00:38 when armed men attacked her village in eastern Sokoto State.
00:42 When the bandits came, they stole the cows.
00:50 They took the goats and even the chickens
00:54 and then they burned the houses.
00:56 They didn't spare any human beings.
00:59 They slaughtered people.
01:01 Just over 500 women and children have fled here
01:07 from across the region.
01:09 Some tell us they've been squatting on this wasteland
01:12 for five years.
01:14 Hadisa is the only child left with her mother out of nine.
01:20 Four of her brothers and sisters died.
01:24 And four others were simply lost in the chaos.
01:28 My other children are all scattered.
01:33 They're not with me.
01:35 She's my only survivor.
01:37 In this largely lawless zone,
01:40 where the state is absent or fragile,
01:43 the future seems bleak.
01:46 We had to run away.
01:53 The bandits had guns.
01:55 So now we just stay here.
01:57 If she could go to school, I would be so happy.
02:02 Anything which could educate Hadisa.
02:05 Poverty and insecurity are entrenched here
02:08 on the edge of the Sahel,
02:10 with thieves and kidnapping gangs operating
02:13 across the Nigeria-Nigeria border.
02:15 There's been a huge flare-up in banditry and violence
02:18 in northwestern Nigeria over the past decade.
02:21 Here in Sokoto state,
02:23 nearly one-third of all local government areas
02:26 are under the control of bandits.
02:28 They're no-go zones for the state.
02:30 And now there are fears the insecurity could get worse
02:34 with the crisis just across the border in Niger.