Civilians in the crossfire of Boko Haram, military
The four women lay dazed on the beds of the clinic. The face of one of them was burnt. Another broke her leg during the Nigerian army offensive against Boko Haram Islamists in their village.
Civilians have often been collateral damage in the conflict that has raged in remote northeast Nigeria for nearly eight years, leaving at least 20,000 dead and more than 2.6 million homeless.
The women wait for their wounds to heal in the suffocating heat.
"Boko Haram fighters would come to their village to steal food and hide," a nurse explained. "The army went there and put the women in a truck to evacuate them.
"The military set the village on fire, so the insurgents couldn't hide anymore. But the fire 'jumped' in the truck."
The women, with their heads covered and gold nose rings in the tradition of the ethnic Kanuri group, still look terrified.
They stare at the walls and ignore visitors, afraid that questions will focus too much on the circumstances of the "liberation" of their village.
The nurse says there are no more men left. They were either killed in the fighting, drafted into the civilian militia or forced to join the ranks of Boko Haram.
Some may even be at so-called "screening" centres, where soldiers pass judgement on whether local men have been involved in the insurgency.
Such checks, free from any oversight, can take weeks or months, especially if the men are Kanuri like the majority of Boko Haram.
James Adewunmi Falode, a security analyst at the University of Lagos who tracks the conflict, said Boko Haram's resemblance to "ordinary citizens" was making the fight against them harder.
"They are not a military adversary that can be easily identified and destroyed on the battlefield. These people can easily blend into the general population when the situation demands," he said.
Even women and children, who have been repeatedly used by the group as as human bombs, are a potential threat, explaining the tensions between the military and the public.
Around Dikwa and a dozen or so other secured major towns, villages have been emptied to prevent them being used by the jihadists as hideouts or resupply points.
The military also wants to stop the mass kidnapping of their inhabitants.
"Before, they (Boko Haram) would read the Koran and try to change us," said Bulama Goni, a former village chief with a white beard in long, flowing robes.
"Now, they are just criminals, asking for money, looking rough and disgusting."
Boko Haram fighters are also starving: Nigerian army tactics have been to slowly choke the rebels, cutting off their supplies of arms and food. The strategy appears to be working.
Boko Haram used to attack major towns and cities in northeast Nigeria and in 2014 controlled territory as big as Belgium.
But now it is limited to sporadic suicide bomb attacks and ambushes of military convoys and check-points.
Comments