Mahamat Adam, married and a father of eight, has been a fisherman for 25 years. He is living on a small island of Lake Chad and comes to Bol occasionally to sell his fish to the local market.
After the morning milking, the herd is moved for grazing. Livestock are moved mid-morning and left to graze around the edge of the lake for the rest of the day.
During the dry season, Peul pastoralists travel across the borders of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.
Livestock are moved mid-morning and left to graze around the edge of the lake for the rest of the day. During the cool dry season, the cattle graze in the village fields on the shores of the lake.
Around 250 families are now living in precarious conditions on the shores of the lake in Koulkimé. They left the island of Dodji, about a one-day journey from Koulkimé.
Fatima, 17 years old, rests in the maternity ward after a caesarean section.
Fishing has long been a key industry in the Lake Chad Basin. Most fishing households tend to use the same set of fishing gear – floating/sinking gillnets and small basket traps. Teams of fishermen place the traps in the waters and leave them unattended for some time.
Women are on their way to Melea weekly local market to sell traditional baskets. For many women in the Lake Chad basin, basket weaving is the only source of income.
Miriam, 20 years old, is living in Dar Es-Salaam camp with her two daughters. She had also lived in Doron Baga until the attacks in January 2015. “Everyone was just running,” she remembered. “I picked up my two daughters, one on each shoulder, and I started running.”
Bol Air strip.
Around 250 families are now living in precarious conditions on the shores of the lake in Koulkimé. They left the island of Dodji, about a one-day journey from Koulkimé.
Teams of fishermen place the traps in the waters and leave them unattended for some time. The traps are manufactured locally according to traditional design.
In 2016, thousands of people in the Lake Chad region were forced to flee their homes as a result of violent clashes between the armed group Boko Haram and Chadian military forces.
Altogether some 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes across the whole Lake Chad region. Many are in camps in Nigeria; others crossed into neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad. Many are living in desperate conditions, without enough food or clean water, and malnutrition rates are alarming.
We left Djilom under the threat of Boko Haram in November 2015. Boko Haram attacked our village in the night and we started running. They are killing without mercy. They kill people like animals. We felt like we were prisoners so we decided to leave and come to settle where we felt safe. It is hard here, but we have been welcomed.
Hawa Baguani, a 24 year old IDP, now living in Tataveron, Lake Chad.
Since November 2015, displaced people have settled in the Djameron site. Boko-Haram attacks in the area of Lake Chad in the west of the country forced them to flee their homes.
SARA CRETA 