Nigeria, March 24 -- KADUNA, Nigeria - Akilu Abdullahi habitually engaged his mother in heartwarming conversations every morning before going to work. But he was unable to do so on 2 January. The young man who dreamed of becoming an imam was seized, a day before, on his way to the market by some soldiers. He never returned home.

The next time his family saw him, it was in harrowing cellphone pictures days after his disappearance. Mr Abdullahi was lying in the bush, stripped to the waist and his hands bound. His lifeless body, riddled with bullet wounds, was later brought to his mother, Maryam Mohammed. Her tears have not stopped since.

Three days before Mr Abdullahi's disappearance, Nura Yusuf went to the Katul Crossing Market in Kachia...