Nigeria, March 7 -- Twelve days before his short life came to a tragic end, Muhammad Usman was about to graze cattle around Maraban Dare in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, on a Sunday morning in early November. Wearing a yellow T-shirt under a navy-blue jacket, the slim young herder cut a forlorn figure of grief and fear.

Born in 2008, Usman endured a harrowing childhood marked by recurring deadly attacks in the north-central Nigerian state. Things got worse after his father was gruesomely murdered in an ambush.

"He used to provide for the family," Usman recalled. "He was killed in 2017 while riding a motorcycle and his body taken away. My mum used to tell me and my siblings, as little children, that we would see him tomor...