On hearing the arrival of newborn, the village women began to take their empty water cans to embark on a walk to the neighbouring village to fetch water.
The trek to the next village has in the past years been strewn with life threatening possibilities.
The water basin of the lake is drying up.
Water is the currency of life and economic activities in the Lake Chad region.
As soon as Amsatu weaned her baby and is back on her feet, it becomes incumbent on her to contribute water to the families of other women in the village that have gone into labour.
In recent years, the region has witnessed both the drying up of rivers and drought, the result of this is an ensuing competition by locals to migrate to communities in areas where there are pastures.
Nothing ever gets reported of these little wars because they get swallowed up in the bigger conflict that is the Boko Haram insurgency.
Investigations by this reporter also reveal that availability of vegetation and water are often a motivation for Boko Haram insurgents’ invasion of communities in the past four years.
The incidence of clashes between villagers that are mainly farmers and armed herdsmen in areas where there is water resource has refused to go away.
Abbas has warned that, “Irrigation water abstraction on the banks and from digging wells and puddles on the dry bed lead to an unprecedented drying up of rivers.” A villager, Abubakar Grema said, the situation in his village close to Banki town at the border with Cameroon was very dire, “sadly, we have resisted other villagers from settling in our village in order to safeguard our scarce water resource.” They have often used the water in their village to appease the insurgents who also are in need of it, and because of this arrangement, they were hardly attacked by them.