It was around 8 p.m. on a June evening when Haycenth Leva got the call.
On the other end of the line, someone was crying. And immediately, Leva — a program officer at the peacebuilding organization Search for Common Ground — knew that what he had been bracing for had come to pass.
“He said, ‘We are under attack,’” recalled Leva, who spoke to Devex from his home in Makurdi, Nigeria. “‘They are killing people.’”
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About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
