War on Boko Haram grips vigilantes of north-east Nigeria

Among the vigilantes of north-east Nigeria we want to save people from Boko Haram attacks and avenge what they are doing to our people,"

"Nigeria is my country. I will fight for my country. I would lose my life for my country," says Umar Dawaki, as his eyes fill with tears.

For years he has worked as a cemetery inspector in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Yola and also hunted wild animals, but now he has volunteered to join the battle against militant group Boko Haram.

It has waged a five-year insurgency to create an Islamic state, establishing bases along Nigeria's border with Cameroon and Chad.

Mr Dawaki tells me just last week he fought alongside the Nigerian military close to the town of Mubi.

"I killed more than 10 of them and we could see some were Chadian. We could tell by the tribal marks on their faces," he says.

He says his own weapons include a small knife that he used to slit the throat of one jihadist and a bow and arrow, as well as buffalo horns dipped in cobra poison.

"A knife cannot penetrate us. If bombs drop they cannot kill us," Mr Dawaki says, pointing to a leather amulet on his arm and another around his neck containing verses from the Koran.

When we are on the battlefront we are focused on the job - we are patriotic, we want to save people from Boko Haram attacks and avenge what they are doing to our people," Tijjani Mohammed, a retired civil servant who just returned from fighting told me.

"We lost three of our men and seven were injured," he says, adding that despite the losses, the mission against the insurgents had been a success.

'Native intelligence'

Boko Haram fighters have been seizing towns and villages close to the Cameroonian border and when they attacked the town of Mubi just over a month ago, they met little resistance from the military.

"I just gathered my children and started running out of town," says Zainabu Yusuf, whose husband was shot dead by the jihadists on the road in front of their home.

"While I was running I saw soldiers running too, asking the way out of the town to Maiha. They were removing their uniforms and hiding them in plastic bags."

When the insurgents moved on to attack areas south of Mubi, panic spread and with people starting to flee the Adamawa state capital, Yola, the authorities had to act fast.

"These vigilante groups were already there but were dormant, so we organised them, bought them vehicles and empowered them," Bala James Nggilari, the governor of Adamawa state, told the BBC.

"The vigilantes and hunters are local people, local boys who know the terrain. When you bring a soldier from Bayelsa [in southern Nigeria], for example, who is coming here for the first time he doesn't know the terrain.

"The people we are fighting are also part of the local community. There is nothing on their forehead that says 'insurgent' but these local hunters are familiar with them, they know them, they have the native intelligence which the regular army may not have," says Mr Nggilari.

He says the plan is to mobilise 4,000 vigilantes.

Co-operation with local vigilantes has reaped rewards as the military has now retaken several towns in the north of Adamawa state, including Mubi, and calm has returned to Yola.