The smoked fish business was one of the biggest sources of livelihood for millions of people in the Lake Chad region before the insecurity which began to overtake the region in 2009.

Baga town, 200 km from Maiduguri, Borno State’s capital, was the biggest fishing centre before an attack in April 2013 which claimed over 185 lives and the loss of 2,000 houses. The attack was by Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP), a breakaway faction from Boko Haram.

This was followed in August 2018 by a fire which razed almost half of Maiduguri’s fish market, further damaging the business.

Baga and the nearby naval base have been under the full control of ISWAP since December 2018, while many inhabitants of the town were displaced and took refuge in Maiduguri and beyond.

Kabiru Musa is a fish seller, while speaking to Radio Ndarason International said fish sellers are counting their losses since the displacement fishermen from Baga.

“The road from Maiduguri to Baga is inaccessible, there are frequent attacks. We cannot ply the road” Musa added.

Othman Sani who was a fish seller before he converted to bread trading said that, apart from the inaccessibly of the road, the military has banned fish importation, and that also affects the business.

In May, 2017, the Nigerian Army banned fish importation, accusing people of smuggling fish for Boko Haram insurgents. And early this year Civil Society Organisations claimed that the military have taken over the fish business and farming from civilians instead of fighting Boko Haram in Baga. The Nigerian military have repeatedly described this accusation as baseless and untrue.

But according to Saleh Kachallah of the Lake Chad Institute in Maiduguri, the problem started long before the insurgency. He attributed the problem to the diminishing size of the lake which caused fishermen to move, while others have turned to subsistence farming.