NIGERIA-BOKOHARAM-UNREST-AID

People sit on a hill facing an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp as they wait for cellphone calls while herders return with their livestock from the outskirts of Pulka before curfew starts on August 1, 2018. - As the presidential race heats up ahead of February polls, the Nigerian government and officials of Borno state, the epicentre of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, are encouraging and facilitating the "return" of tens of thousands of people. As he campaigns for a second term in office, the incumbent president is working to show that he has delivered on his pledge to defeat the Islamists. But the reality is that people are being sent back to camps across Borno state while Boko Haram is still launching devastating attacks against military and civilian targets. Pulka is a garrison town built on a model becoming increasingly common across Nigeria's remote northeast region: a devastated town turned into a military base so soldiers can protect satellite camps and humanitarian agencies can distribute aid. (Photo by Stefan HEUNIS / AFP) (Photo credit should read STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP via Getty Images)