After a year of the war, all the villages in our area were out of government control, so there were no police, no courts, and nobody to protect us from the armoured groups who were attacking many villages. These groups would steal things, kidnap people, or even sometimes kill people. As a result, the village had to organise its own protection. Every civilian had to find a gun to protect themselves, and groups of young people patrolled the village in shifts, in case anyone came to attack us.
Another problem was that there were many groups on the road to . . .