What Is in This Book Leaving Nigeria 4 My Homeland Nigeria 6 Baseema’s Story Village Life 8 Boko Haram 10 Baseema’s Story Attacks and Violence 12 Empty Villages 14 Baseema’s Story Fleeing Terror 16 State of Emergency 18 Baseema’s Story Sheltering in the City 20 Where Is Safety 22 Baseema’s Story An Uncertain Future 24 The Struggle Continues 26 You Can Help 28 Glossary 30 Learning More 31 Index and About the Author 32
Leaving Nigeria Nigeria is a land of contrasts or differences There is a small number of rich people who live in cities But there is also a number of poor people Their quality of life is much lower More than 186 million people live in Nigeria There are about 500 different ethnic groups but there are four main groups Over the last 50 years there has been a lot of fighting in Nigeria There was a civil war for three years between 1967 and 1970 After that the country was ruled by the military The rulers kept the country’s wealth for themselves They also punished anyone who did not agree with them Niger Chad Nigeria Abuja Nigeria is a country in Africa It shares borders with Benin Niger Chad and Cameroon Central African Republic Cameroon Mali Burkina Faso Benin Togo Ghana Gulf of Guinea 4
UN Rights of the Child Every child has rights Rights are privileges and freedoms that are protected by law Refugees have the right to special protection and help The United Nations UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a document that lists the rights of children all over the world Think about these rights as you read this book In Nigeria the roads are very poor and difficult to drive on It is not easy to travel around the country Many Nigerians have left their homes to escape violence Some fled to neighboring African countries They are refugees Refugees flee their homeland because of unsafe conditions Refugees are different from immigrants Immigrants choose to leave to look for better opportunities in another country Around 1 9 million Nigerians have fled their homes but remained in the country These are internally displaced people IDPs Many IDPs live in camps like this one in northern Nigeria 5
