The government declared Ngoshe safe, paid 3,000 refugees to come home. Boko Haram just took 300 of them as slaves.

Nigerian security works like this. The state announces a clearance operation. Then announces resettlement. Then announces a committee to investigate what went wrong after the massacre. The announcement is the product. The safety is not.

The latest Boko Haram attack in Borno State happened in Ngoshe, Gwoza Local Government — and it followed a resettlement programme the government ran. Boko Haram had seized the town in 2014, declared it part of their caliphate, and drove thousands of residents into Cameroon. Years later, the Nigerian Army declared the area cleared. The Borno State government went further — it paid displaced families to return. Last year, 3,000 of them came back to Ngoshe.

On the night of February 23, Boko Haram returned.

What happened when Boko Haram returned to Ngoshe on February 23?

They hit the Nigerian Army's 82nd Division base around 1am. Overran it. Killed soldiers. Burned vehicles. Seized weapons. Then moved into the town itself. House by house. For hours. By morning, over 300 residents had been taken — women, children, the chief imam — and thousands more had fled to the nearby town of Pulka, where survivors are sleeping on roads and in school buildings. As of today, there are no Nigerian troops in Ngoshe.

This weekend a Boko Haram commander named Ali Ngulde posted video claiming responsibility. In it, he confirmed beheadings and announced the 300 abducted would be held as slaves.

Were there warnings that Nigeria's northeast resettlement programme was unsafe?

A Nigerian human rights lawyer based in Washington had warned US officials months earlier that resettling people into Gwoza was a setup for disaster. TruthNigeria reported his warning this week: "The Borno government is paying refugees to come home and be killed." Nobody acted. The lawyer also alleged — and this is unverified — that Ali Ngulde may be the same commander the federal government paid ₦2 billion to ransom Catholic schoolgirls kidnapped from Niger State last year. If the allegation holds, the government funded the man now holding 300 of its citizens.

How has the Nigerian government responded to the Borno abductions?

Senator Ali Ndume confirmed the attack and called for more fighter jets. The Nigerian Army said it was investigating "exaggerated" claims — then quietly confirmed the casualties. The government in Abuja has said nothing publicly.

The resettlement programme was the government's evidence that the northeast was healing. Three thousand people took it seriously enough to go home. What does it mean that the government can declare a place safe, put its name behind that declaration, and be this wrong? And what does it mean that no one in power is answering that question this morning?