Grave-diggers of Maiduguri: burying Boko Haram and the past

Even the dead weren't safe from Boko Haram when the Islamist insurgency erupted in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri nearly seven years ago.
"They began to destroy this one," said Babagana Modu, gesturing to a mound of baked earth and sand -- the grave of a prominent Muslim cleric.
"We tried to stop them but we couldn't. They had guns and we didn't. We only had our shovels," the 30-year-old told AFP.
The dead may no longer be able to tell tales but the grave-diggers of the Gwange cemetery certainly can.
They talk of a place where piles of bodies were routinely dumped from trucks and some were even brought to be killed.

But in recent times, Modu and his colleagues say their workload has decreased as attacks become more sporadic and a sustained counter-insurgency brings a relative calm to the much-targeted city.

"At the height of the insurgency, 200, 300, 400 bodies were being brought here. Sometimes the sanitation department trucks were bringing three truckloads of dead bodies," said Modu.
"If they still had more left, they would go back and bring them the next day. This road just outside the cemetery was not passable because of the stench."
Modu's estimation may be an exaggeration but not by much. At least 17,000, possibly more, have died overall across the Muslim-majority north.

The police and military launched a crackdown in Maiduguri after a series of Boko Haram attacks at the end of July 2009. Some 800 Islamists, including the group's then leader Muhammad Yusuf, were killed in just a few days in what is considered the start of Boko Haram's insurgency.
Modu's boss, Bulama Ali, speaks of smaller numbers, although he admitted there was a time when the cemetery was almost full.
"In the past we would get up to 20 to 30 bodies every day. Now we get five to 10. Most of these are deaths from natural causes."
"It's an indication that there's relative peace returned to Maiduguri and the metropolis," he added.

60-year-old Ali's 22 staff are volunteers, young men dressed in fading replica football shirts, dusty trousers and flip flops.