“Every time I close my eyes, they are shooting me again…”

HUMANGLE

The excruciating pain and the trauma she experienced come back to her in a flood, even though the incident happened nearly four years ago. 

She still struggles to cope with the trauma caused by terrorists in an attack on her farm in Dogon Noma, Kajuru Local government area, but she tries to struggle on.

“I was satisfied with my life in the village,” she told HumAngle, “but I am left with nothing because the armed men burned everything to the ground”. 

Escaping From Dogon Noma

The early morning of March 11 2019, was like many others. 

“I remembered waking up at 5:30 in the morning for morning prayers, but my sister and I decided to go back to sleep since there was no work to be done,” 

But then the peace was shattered. “Piercing screams woke us up,” Lydia said. 

Lydia, her husband David, a recently retired police officer and their only son, had been staying in Kano before she chose to permanently return to Dogon Noma in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria, in 2014.  She made this choice because she preferred life in the countryside. She said there was strain in the marriage; she had grown tired of her husband’s affairs. 

“I made him buy me a plot of land when I returned, and I used that to farm so I could sustain myself.” Lydia planted crops like maize and soybeans, and her husband visited from time to time.

Lydia and her husband, who was home for the week, went outside to investigate, and that would be the last time they saw each other until after the attack. 

Some of the attackers were dressed in camouflage military uniforms, but she didn’t have time to ponder on that as her sister grabbed her, and they ran through the chaos. 

“Something told me it was not a great idea for us to be together. If we each went our separate ways, maybe one of us would survive. So, I told my sister it was best if we ran in opposite directions.” Lydia believes that decision saved their lives because even though she ended up a victim in the attack, her sister made it out safe.  

Lydia remembers running aimlessly as bullets went off behind her. One grazed her upper back but, fortunately, didn’t get to do much damage. However, the shock and impact from the shot made her lose her step. She struggled to run into the nearest hut, where she hid under an old mattress- but that was not enough to shield her from the wrath of the armed men because she was soon found after they came in to ransack the hut.