Big Game Hunters Now Track Terrorists
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Since he was a boy, Bunu Bukar has hunted big game in northeastern Nigeria, tracking the footprints of wild pigs, antelopes and elephants through the thick brush.
Now the prey he hunts leaves motorcycle tracks.
Mr. Bukar and dozens of members of a century- old hunting association have trained their weapons on Boko Haram, the Islamist militants who have shot, kidnapped and burned their way through villages on an eight-year campaign of murder and destruction.
Nigeria has marshaled battalions of soldiers to carry out an operation to attack and kill the insurgents, who have retreated to forest hide- outs.
Tired of Boko Haram’s mayhem, civilians have formed vigilante groups to join the fight. Mr. Bukar belongs to the Hunters/Vigilante Association in Borno State, the center of Nigeria’s battle with Boko Haram.
Recently, Nigeria scored a major victory in the battle with the militants, securing the release of 82 girls whom the fighters kidnapped from a boarding school three years ago in the village of Chibok.
Mr. Bukar said he was with Nigerian soldiers last fall when they came across one of the abducted schoolgirls: Amina Ali, who was scrounging for food in the forest with other Boko Haram members. She was the first of the girls to be found.
Mr. Bukar’s group, which once gathered in the bush to track rabbits, wild hens and other game, first encountered Boko Haram when the militants fled the state capital four years ago and took their rampage to the countryside, encroaching on the hunters’ turf.
“In the beginning, there was no problem,” said Mr. Bukar, 51. “Hunters and insurgents met in the forest, and everyone was doing their own business.”
That changed when the military started chasing Boko Haram through the countryside. The soldiers turned to the hunters for help. It did not take long for Boko Haram to realize the hunters were guiding soldiers, and the group wanted revenge.
Boko Haram’s first target was Mai Ajirambe, an elderly leader of the hunters’ group. Insurgents tracked him to a village near his home and kidnapped him. When fellow hunters found Mr. Ajirambe, he had been decapitated.
“We decided right then, they won’t stop until they kill all of us,” Mr. Bukar said.
He and other hunters moved their families from their villages to the state capital, Maiduguri, for safety. Then they joined the fight. Now, the hunters sometimes lead soldiers into battle with their own homemade, long-barreled guns.
When Mr. Bukar gets ready for a mission, he follows the same routine he has used since boyhood. He rubs an herbal mix across his body to mask his scent. He puts on his lucky necklace. In the field, he stays as quiet as possible, using hand signals to communicate with other hunters. He never runs after his prey; he lets it come to him.
“Once you meet it, there are only two options: You kill it or it kills you,” Mr. Bukar said.
The hunters are relying on traditions handed down through generations. A handful of women who hunt have also joined the Boko Haram fight.
The hunters said pursuing humans was trickier than going after animals — even elephants, which are notorious for fighting back. “If you climb a tree, you might be safe from an elephant. But not with Boko Haram,” said Mr. Bukar, who is also the secretary of the hunters’ group. “If you climb a tree, they’ll shoot you.”
Muhammed Bakamaa, 35, was on patrol recently when his phone rang with news that Boko Haram fighters were heading his way. After hearing four approaching motorcycles, he and the other hunters stood in the road to block them.
“We killed all four,” he said.