Battling Boko Haram: Victims recount their terrifying experiences with militiamen

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The Boko Haram insurgency has left more than 30-thousand people dead, two million displaced and wreaked havoc on northeast Nigeria, since their violent campaign started 10 years ago. Just this week, at least 70 mourners were killed when suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a funeral. CGTN's Samson Omale spoke to some of the victims of the insurgency about their harrowing experiences.

Martha Peter knows the terror of Boko Haram firsthand.

The 36-year-old mother of four watched as her husband was killed with a machete when Boko Haram invaded her village in Adamawa state.

She lost two of her children and a brother while trying to escape.

MARTHA PETER, VICTIM "I lost my daughter, she was 6 months. We were running in the bush and she died in the process and I carried her for 3 days without any place to bury the child. My husband got killed in the crisis and I saw how they macheted my husband till he died."

Yakubu Bitrus was forced to leave his farm in Gwoza after Boko Haram declared the town the headquarters of their caliphate.

Today he smokes beef popularly called "Suya" to make ends meet.

His parents were kidnapped and held in Boko Haram custody for three years until the Nigerian Army liberated Gwoza town.

Yakubu was shocked to see a member of the terrorist group who killed his brother walking freely when he returned to look for his father.

YAKUBU BITRUS, VICTIM "Back at home, I lived comfortably and I had a farm, I had everything I needed but here I don't have a farm, I don't have anything. The issues of Boko Haram there is nothing you can do about it because last year when I went to pick up my father, I saw the person that killed my senior brother. He was moving amongst people with freedom and joy."

Some 1.9 million displaced people live in camps, waiting for the chance to go home. Most of them are separated from their families, while their children are out of school.

SAMSON OMALE, JOS NIGERIA "It's been a decade since Boko Haram launched its deadly war on northeastern Nigeria. Many of the survivors are still battling with the trauma of the insurgency. And many here believe the battle to eradicate the group is far from over."

Many of the victims are in camps that are often overcrowded.

Mark Lipdo ran one of such camp in Jos, Plateau state.

He is worried that not enough is being done to resettle victims of the insurgency.

MARK LIPDO, PROGRAM CORDINATOR, STEFANOS FOUNDATION "We have all these families struggling to make ends meet, but 5 years of taking care of these people - what is their future? Yes, we have given rice, we have given immediate food supplies but it is not good. It is not a good condition to keep a human being with their whole family in a camp for more than 1 or 2 years."

The Nigerian government says fighting the terror group remains one of its top priorities.

Boko Haram may have not had any territory under its control like it did in 2015.

But continued attacks by the group mean Nigeria's ten-year war against the insurgency continues into another decade.

Samson Omale, CGTN, Jos Nigeria.