One year after a massive attack ranked among the worst in Boko Haram's six-year insurgency, the residents of Baga in northeast Nigeria say their home is a ghost town.The jihadists razed the fishing hub on the shores of Lake Chad in a four-day assault beginning January 3 last year, forcing thousands from their homes and killing hundreds of others.
Unlike other Boko Haram attacks, which often go virtually unnoticed outside Nigeria, the Baga massacre made headlines around the world after it was reported 2,000 people lost their lives in the raid and Amnesty International released satellite images showing the ravaged town.
With its charred houses and shuttered businesses, it is hard to believe Baga used to be a lively trading centre of 200,000 people, where merchants would travel to sell cattle, leather goods and trade fresh produce.
"Baga is still deserted, we are all living in camps and homes of friends and relatives in Maiduguri because we are scared of returning home," Muhammad Alhaji Bukar, a displaced Baga resident, told AFP.
