Burnt-out military vehicles, cars pockmarked with hundreds of bullet holes, and rusting tanks daubed with Arabic script litter the main roads in Nigeria's Adamawa State.
Internally displaced people in Nigeria's northeast have started returning home, but health clinics, banks and schools are still lacking and vast stretches of farmland between towns stand barren, meaning thousands could face severe food shortages.
Reuters photographer Akintunde Akinleye visited former Boko Haram strongholds in north-eastern Nigeria. The insurgents have retreated, leaving Islamic teachings written on the walls of people's homes. Signs of Western education or Christianity have been crudely erased or destroyed.
A defaced cross is seen over a door in a compound once occupied by Boko Haram in Michika townAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersA local vigilante stands next to a broken sign for the Federal Polytechnic in MararabaAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersA Boko Haram signboard rests against a wall in a compound in Michika townAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersThe Islamic declaration of faith is scribbled on a shopfront in Michika townAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersPeople walk past a bank in Mubi, which locals say was looted by Boko HaramAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersA woman sits in front of her home, which had been occupied by Boko Haram, in Michika townAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersAn abandoned tank is seen along a road in Bazza town, after the Nigerian military recaptured it from Boko HaramAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersA military vehicle pockmarked with bullet holes is seen abandoned along a road in BazzaAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersA soldier walks through a burnt-out building at the headquarters of the Michika local governmentAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersA budget document is seen in a dusty local government office in Michika town, Adamawa stateAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersA woman walks past a damaged mosque in the town of Mararaba, after the Nigerian military recaptured it from Boko HaramAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersPeople travel in a car with their belongings as they return to the town of MichikaAkintunde Akinleye/ReutersWomen travel in the back of a truck as people return to the town of MararabaAkintunde Akinleye/Reuters
