{"id":9199,"date":"2021-02-02T22:23:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T05:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanjhisoch.com\/english\/?p=9199"},"modified":"2021-02-02T22:23:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T05:23:02","slug":"i-may-have-to-beg-now-jihadist-attack-leaves-north-nigeria-city-in-darkness-for-a-week-residents-helpless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanjhisoch.com\/english\/i-may-have-to-beg-now-jihadist-attack-leaves-north-nigeria-city-in-darkness-for-a-week-residents-helpless\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I May Have to Beg Now’: Jihadist Attack Leaves North Nigeria City in Darkness for a Week, Residents Helpless"},"content":{"rendered":"
The attack was the third time in a month that the IS-linked Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group have plunged the city of three million into darkness for days by blowing up transmission lines.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Sanjhi Soch buero :Residents of the northeastern Nigerian city Maiduguri have been struggling with a power blackout for a week after jihadists blew up supply lines, causing water shortages and disrupting businesses and daily life.<\/p>\n

The attack was the third time in a month that the IS-linked Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group have plunged the city of three million into darkness for days by blowing up transmission lines.<\/p>\n

Maiduguri’s latest troubles came as President Muhammadu Buhari replaced his top four military commanders, in a sudden overhaul after months of criticism over the handling of the country’s decade-long insurgency.<\/p>\n

Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, has been without power since January 26 after the jihadists blew up a power grid just outside the city, according to residents and sources at the power company.<\/p>\n

Bukar Musa, a welder, has seen his business crippled by the power outage, forcing him to look for menial jobs to feed his wife and three children.<\/p>\n

“It has been a whole week without a light in the city which has grounded my welding job,” the 27-year-old told AFP.<\/p>\n

“I have now turned to a labourer, assisting a bricklayer for a fraction of what I make as a welder, which is inadequate to feed my family,” Musa said.<\/p>\n

He would usually earn the equivalent of around $6.60 (about 5.5 euros) per day at his workshop.<\/p>\n

Now, though, he makes around $4 working on building sites, spending a good part of the daily wage on medication for body pains from the labour, he said.<\/p>\n

Grema Umar’s ice-block vending business has also crumbled, forcing him to contemplate begging to feed himself.<\/p>\n

“I have nothing left, even if power is restored I will have to raise another capital and I don’t know how,” Umar said.<\/p>\n

\n

WATER LINES<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even water has become scarce in the city, which relies heavily on motorised boreholes that require electric power to operate.<\/p>\n

Many households have shut down their boreholes which supply them and their neighbours due to the high cost of diesel to power them, several residents said.<\/p>\n

Long queues have appeared at the few boreholes supplying water, as residents line up with pails and jerry cans.<\/p>\n

“The major problem is water scarcity which has hit the city, making it expensive,” said Hajara Abdulkarim.<\/p>\n

The price of a 25-litre (6.6-gallon) jerry can of water has more than tripled, to 25 naira up from seven naira previously, said Abdulkarim, a mother of five.<\/p>\n

Maiduguri is also home to several internally displaced persons (IDP) camps for people forced to flee their homes by military operations against the jihadists.<\/p>\n

For now, the outage has not affected the camps, which are lit by solar power installed by charities.<\/p>\n

The power company said in a statement that it was working “to fix the faulty line and transmit bulk power to our network for onward distribution to end-users.”<\/p>\n

ISWAP and rival Boko Haram jihadist group often target infrastructure, blowing up telecom and power lines in the northeast.<\/p>\n

Militants also often target army patrols, making the roads in the northeast of the country risky for civilians as well as repair crews from the power company.<\/p>\n

Nigeria’s jihadist insurgency began in 2009. The conflict has since killed around 36,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The attack was the third time in a month that the IS-linked Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group have plunged the city of three million into darkness for days by blowing up transmission lines. Sanjhi Soch buero :Residents of the northeastern Nigerian city Maiduguri have been struggling with a power blackout for a week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n