The bus driver sensed straight away that he and his six passengers were in trouble when the gunmen, dressed in Nigerian army uniforms, stopped their vehicle at a checkpoint. For weeks there had been reports of jihadists disguised as soldiers abducting travellers. The kidnapping around two weeks ago was part of a wave of identical attacks targeting the key Damaturu road — the main lifeline linking Maiduguri and its roughly two million people to the outside world.
