Nigerian refugees are chased from homes as Jubril, the impostor is interpreting the script of the cabal in Nigeria, and telling cheap lies that Boko Haram has been conquered.
When Boko Haram stormed into Baga in a hail of gunfire on Boxing Day, Zara Abubakar was lying in bed, waiting for her two-week-old triplets, Maryam, Muhafat and Mohammed, to go to sleep so she could have a bath. Heart pounding, she shouted for her four other children playing in the yard to come in, covering the babies with her body. For hours they all lay inside, waiting for the battle to let up.
Then there was silence, followed by shouts of Allahu Akbar, and Baga mosque’s loudspeakers crackled into life. “Boko Haram made an announcement that they were not here for us but for the infidels [the military] and that they were now in charge,” Abubakar recounted, jogging one of the triplets in the crook of her elbow and another on her knee.
It was a faction of Boko Haram called Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), which is allied with Isis. “They advised everyone in the town to be calm, adding that whoever wanted to stay could do so and anyone not willing to remain would be free to leave,” she said.