Nigeria's farmers on the frontline against Boko Haram: 'We fear for our souls'

Armed guards and special buses are increasingly used to coax terrified farmers back into growing food.

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They are Agro Rangers - a special security unit set up by the government to defend farmers from militants from jihadist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), who can strike farms in Borno state at any time.

"There is fear - we fear for our souls," Aisha Isa, 50, tells the BBC as she tends to her crops.

Because it is no longer safe for her family to live in the home they fled 11 years ago, she and many others like her are bussed into Dalwa village from a pick-up point in the state capital, Maiduguri, early in the morning. It is less than an hour's drive away.

She now lives in temporary housing, and growing beans and maize remains the only way for her to feed her family, she says.