Baga Sola, Chad--Bloody faces, headless bodies, burned houses -- these are some of the stark and haunting images drawn by children who have fled deadly Boko Haram violence in neighbouring Nigeria for the relative safety of a refugee camp in western Chad.
At the Dar-es-Salam camp in Baga Sola, around 10 kilometres (six miles) from Lake Chad, dozens of boys in dusty rags gather in front of a UNICEF tent, elbowing each other and giggling.
The kids are getting ready for a drawing workshop run by the United Nations children's agency.
Once inside the tent, calm descends as the kids, pen in hand, attempt to put their memories on a white piece of paper.
They are reconstructing the events they witnessed when Boko Haram Islamist fighters attacked their villages.
Sumaila Ahmed says he is 15 years old, but looks about 12.
"The day of the attack we were in front of our door when we saw the Boko Haram. They went towards the people who were standing by the river and shot them. They shot them in the head," said the boy.
On all fours, he draws the outline of a boat and bodies floating on the river.
"Those are the ones who could get onto the canoes, and they are fleeing. The others are dead," said Sumaila, without blinking.
AFP
