Nigeria, The Giant of Africa, is the most populous country in Africa. With an abundance of oil reserves, high levels of corruption and poor governance most of the people live in poverty. The conflict in northern Nigeria is a complicated mixture of ethnic, political and religious divisions and also economic disparity and impunity. All of these elements have created a fertile ground for Islamist insurgents to rise up and make it their mission to transform Nigeria into an Islamist state. They are far from achieving that, however constant attacks on places of worship, security services, schools and civilians in general has destabilized the north east and drained those states economies. Many people are fleeing Borno and Yobe state. The number of Internally displaced people is on the rise and going unnoticed as they blend into other urban areas.
People have been reduced to pawns in political games of power. Life has become cheap and hearts have hardened. The military has the challenging task to stabilize the North, but are also blamed for making the situation worse. Mistrust of security forces is high; fathers and young men sleep with one eye open. The consequence is that people are taking the law into their own hands as they feel that this is the only way to protect theirselves.