You used to spend long days on the farm, planting a variety of crops and bringing home a full harvest. Now, you work only a few hours under the watch of soldiers. You can’t go far from town, and you can’t plant tall crops anymore because they can conceal terrorists.

So you plant only beans and groundnuts, but the yield is never enough. And each time you step onto the farm, you know you might hear gunshots, and you would have to run for your life.

You flee for your life when Boko Haram attacks your hometown in Adamawa, northeastern Nigeria. By the time you return, a neighbour had already begun building on your family compound.

When you protest, he bribes the authorities and dismisses you, telling you that you have no one to inherit the home. Your son, who used to be your main caretaker, went missing during the war, and you have not heard from him since.

Which weighs more heavily: grieving a missing loved one without knowing if he is alive or dead, or facing daily struggles that come with losing your caretaker? Either way, the consequences are crushing. So how do you cope with grief, poverty, and injustice, all at once?

You are at home, preparing for a quiet evening after your night prayers. Life is hard, but at least your family is together. Then, without warning, armed men storm into your village. They yell commands you can barely process.

Panic sweeps through your body like fire. You run into the darkness, heart pounding, hoping, praying to escape. But the night offers no shield. They find you. They drag you out. And from this moment, life as you knew it changes entirely.

This episode of Vestiges of Violence tells the story of Huraira and her days in captivity.