(MENAFN- Arab News) MICHIKA: Spent bullets crunch underfoot a raided bank lies in ruins and burned out cars and motorbikes dot the streets.
Michika may now be free from Boko Haram but the town in the remote north of Nigeria's Adamawa state is eerily quiet and signs of the militants' presence are everywhere.
Workshops are empty markets deserted shops and schools shut.
Angelina Linus fled Michika when Boko Haram arrived last September and spent seven months hiding in the mountains that overlook the town and Cameroon beyond. She returned in April when it was liberated.
But even though the rebels have gone the almost deserted town is still under threat she said.
'We need help before the rains. We don't have anything. No medicine no mattresses... everything is required' the 38-year-old told AFP.
'Two of my four children are in the state capitl Yola. I need them back but I have nothing to feed them so they are better off staying there. The rains may come but there's no way to farm because we don't have anything to cultivate' added Jamila Gambo as civilian vigilantes manned a checkpoint with home-made weapons. 'If there's no food at the end of the day people will starve' she said.