Abuja, Nigeria – It’s a few minutes past 9am and Sunana Ibrahim Wariga’s daily struggle is just beginning. Wariga, a stocky 56-year old, is one of thousands who call Durumi camp in the capital home.

He escaped the deadly Boko Haram rebellion in his home state of Borno more than three years ago.

“I used to be a farmer in Chinene village. They attacked my village and seized all my harvest. What they could not carry they burned,” the husband of two wives told Al Jazeera, as children in school uniforms played nearby.

“They burned 200 bags of beans that I harvested. We had to run for our lives. I had everything I wanted in life. I was paying the university fees of two of my children. Now, I can’t feed myself let alone feed them,” Wariga, a father of 10, said as he waited patiently for anyone to offer him a day job.

The eight-year campaign of violence by Boko Haram, which roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden”, has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced about 2.6 million others. 

‘Miserable’

Despite the government’s military offensive against the armed group, which wants to establish a strict interpretation of Islamic law, Boko Haram has continued to carry out deadly attacks in northern Nigeria.

Many displaced by the violence have fled not just to other parts of Africa’s most populous country but also to neighbouring states. In Abuja, there are more than 10,000 people who escaped the country’s dangerous northeast to the city, according to a spokesman for IDPs.

“There are 3,000 people in this camp alone. People have been here for five years. There is no food, no water, no healthcare and schools for the children. Life here is very tough, it is miserable,” Idriss Ibrahim Halilu, a spokesman and coordinator for the Durumi IDP camp, told Al Jazeera.