Nigerian vigilantes fight Boko Haram one bullet at a time

They helped tackle Boko Haram but could vigilantes turn into Nigeria’s next security threat? With his homemade rifle resting on the sandbags of the checkpoint, Mustapha Musa scans the red-mud road and the lush green fields surrounding his small village of Molai Kiliyari on the outskirts of the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

For now, the only sound is bird-song. But Mr Musa, 24, and three other vigilantes on duty are tense - they know danger is just down the road.

This is a place where strangers are treated with suspicion for good reason.

A few weeks ago, in the dead of night, several suicide bombers blew up their explosives bringing carnage to the village. Eight vigilantes were killed.

“We don’t know when they’ll come and whether they’ll come with guns or bombs,” says Mr Musa, his trigger-finger resting on the wooden barrel of his rifle.

“But I’m not scared of anything. There are soldiers nearby if we needed reinforcements.

The only problem we face is that the enemy is well-armed - and my gun only fires one round.” The young men are among the estimated 26,000 members of vigilante groups defending their communities from attacks by militants from the Boko Haram Islamist group.

The eight-year insurgency has devastated north-eastern Nigeria and spilled over into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

The vigilantes first came to prominence in Maiduguri in 2013. With the Nigerian army in disarray, there were fears that the city would fall.

“Initially, the youth in Maiduguri were caught up between the brutality of Boko Haram and the harsh reprisals of the Nigerian military,” says Nnamdi Obasi, one of the authors of a recent International Crisis Group report on vigilante groups in the region.

“They formed vigilante groups so they could isolate and eliminate Boko Haram members and also demonstrate they were not complicit in the group’s attacks and atrocities.” The overstretched Nigerian military quickly realised the value of extra manpower and the local knowledge the vigilantes possessed.

It joined up with them in order to flush out the insurgents.

Unofficially, the vigilantes are now called the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), working alongside and liaising with the military.

More than 650 have been killed in the violence. Most are volunteers - petty traders, civil servants, and unemployed youth - and are not paid for their work. But around 2,000 vigilantes received some military training and are now on the government’s payroll.

Often they man checkpoints, spotting potential suicide bombers. But they also operate alongside the army in the bush where Boko Haram militants take shelter.

“It’s like rich people that go hunting,” one vigilante told me. “When the army says there’s an operation we all want to go.”

The vigilantes are normally armed only with wooden clubs, machetes and homemade weapons. Most are volunteers - petty traders, civil servants, and unemployed youth - and are not paid for their work. But around 2,000 vigilantes received some military training and are now on the government’s payroll.