Fear makes Nigerian families sleep in bushes

Abuja: He ventures into the forest looking for his daughters, armed with bow and arrow in case the terrorists surprise him.

The odds are stacked against him. No one has found the 276 girls abducted from their school last month by the terror group Boko Haram.

But then again, no one’s really been looking, a father who daughters were kidnapped was quoted by the CNN as saying. Boko Haram, on the other hand, is entrenched in the region.

The father believes that either supporters or members of Boko Haram live in his village and they are passing on information to the Islamists. They know his family, the father says. They know about his daughters.

The family is so afraid, he says, that they have fled their home and taken to sleeping in the bush.

“Life is very dangerous in Chibok right now. Since on 14th of April, to date, we don’t sleep at home,” the father said.

They’re not alone. The father said that starting around 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening, “people will disappear into the bush because there is no security.”