Ibrahim Bilal was a wealthy man by the standards of Nigeria’s impoverished north-east.

Until a year ago, the farmer and his family — four wives and 30 children — lived in two houses in the small city of Yola, which is ringed by cornfields stretching east towards mountains that form the border with Cameroon. Mr Bilal’s small business, selling cement and foam mattresses, supplemented the family income.

Then militants from Boko Haram, the Islamist terror group, over-ran many of the towns and villages north and east of Yola, forcing communities to run for their lives. About half a million people ended up in the city, hungry and dazed. The influx more than doubled Yola’s population.

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