For over two decades, non-state actors have wreaked havoc in Nigeria, creating humanitarian crises of unimaginable proportions in the process. The consequence has been the oddity of Internally Displaced Persons camps in several parts of the country. The insurgency of groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP, alongside banditry, kidnapping and killer-herdsmen, is the key driver of this malady. Natural calamities such as flooding have added to the conundrum.
As a result, Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states in the North-east, the epicentre of jihadist violence; to Benue, Plateau and Niger states in the North-central; in addition to Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Katsina and Kano states in the North-west zone, have not been the same, as they are ridden with severe existential challenges.
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The welfare of the hordes displaced by these crises has largely been borne by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, alongside the World Food Programme (WFP) and supplies from other global donors. These organisations provide not just food but primary healthcare services to the IDPs. There were 3.7 million people in this demographic basket across Nigeria at the end of 2024, according to the Internally Displaced Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Without doubt, the figure is rising with the mindless and perennial killings and burning of villages in Benue and Plateau states by killer-herders and other actors in recent months.
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Sadly, the donor support to these IDPs from the WFP has declined considerably with the global funding cuts of the UN, following the withdrawal of support from the United States under the Donald Trump presidency. The WFP’s head of operations in the North-east, Trust Mlambo, recently told the BBC, “We don’t have any more to give after this (month) cycle. Our warehouses are empty and we are desperate for any generous donations.” To keep hope alive, $620 million is needed urgently to cater to Nigeria’s IDPs and related emergencies in the Sahel, the WFP has stated.
Before now, the rationing of food, with attendant severe malnutrition, had been routine in the IDP camps. A major International support group, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) – Doctors without Borders, says that fatality data of malnourished children in the first six months of 2025 was 652. This doubled the tally of 2024.
The North-east zone has about 1.4 million IDPs and 150 donor-funded clinics, treating malnourished citizens, mostly children. These facilities are on the cusp of ceasing to exist if support doesn’t come from other quarters. MSF’s representative in Nigeria, Ahmed Aldikhari, said that this apocalyptic fright had been on since 2024 when the US, UK and the European Union had either withdrawn or scaled down their support.
Until this negative turn of the tide, 60 per cent of the funding of the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs activities in Nigeria came from the US. Its report on Nigeria’s 2025 humanitarian challenges in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, clearly states that 1.8 million children risk acute malnutrition if nothing is done to roll this back in time.
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, whose domain is the most hobbled by this existential challenge, has vigorously embraced the resettlement of the IDPs, beginning with 5,000 in the five communities of Goniri, BulaKunye, Mayanti, Abaram and Darajamal, for them to actively engage in farming to feed themselves this year.
The strategy is underpinned by the construction of 1,000 housing units in the communities for effectiveness and the digging of defence trenches for safety. Mr Zulum held strategic meetings with members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in the area and approved a six-month payment of allowances to new recruits, to help protect the citizens, as they go about tilling the soil for food production.
This is a pragmatic engagement that should be spread across the country. For the record, Zulum’s administration has expended ₦40 billion in food and other supplies to the IDPs in four years, as of the end of 2024.
Philanthropists like Aliko Dangote, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Femi Otedola, Tony Elumelu and other wealthy Nigerians should heed the clarion call of WFP for “more generous donations” to avoid greater disaster befalling IDPs and those in these embattled parts of Nigeria. Imminent starvation with possible resultant death is real.
But scarier is the likelihood of hunger forcing the IDPs, especially the youths among them, to become willing recruits of the insurgents. They had openly threatened to “enter the bush” – a metaphor for evil self-help – during a hunger-induced protest in Dikwa and Mafa last year, 2024.
The situation is so dire that WFP Director for West Africa, Margret Van der Velden, joined the Save Our Souls call on donor support for Nigeria’s IDPs. In March, she had sounded the alarm that “Food security is national security.” This is absolutely so! Some of these agencies have been visiting governors to sensitise them on the enormity of the task before them. We urge the Bill Gates Foundation to lend a listening ear and yield to the call for assistance with regard to this emergency, in view of its huge track record of support for crucial humanitarian interventions in Nigeria.
IDP camps all over the world are essentially transitory, due to their unusual nature. And, the Kampala Convention prescribes global standards for exiting them. But this has not been the case in Nigeria, as a result of the poverty of leadership, misplacement of priorities, and corruption. The 2021 IDPs transition framework, which takes cognisance of this fact, should be made to work.
The provision of shelter, education and economic opportunities must be created for IDPs in order for them to transit to meaningful new lives. Therefore, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) should scale up its service delivery and operate with more accountability. There have been cases in the past when relief materials for the needy were unfortunately diverted. Last year, for instance, Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State intercepted a truckload of such materials.
President Bola Tinubu’s recent charge to governors to water the grass more was a subtle jab at their poor welfare performance in relation to the downtrodden and general governance measures toward enhanced food security for all.
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Already, Borno State has crafted a “Strategy for Durable Solution to Internally Displaced Persons for 2025–2027”, which we recommend to other embattled states. However, the action plan is not a substitute for tackling the key drivers of insecurity in the region and beyond. The Nigerian State must wake up to the challenge of subduing insurgency, kidnapping, banditry and killer-herders.
No country in the world can truly thrive and be worthy of the notion of sovereignty when crucial parts of its demographic are continuously susceptible to bloodshed and human degradation over protracted periods. More so, with the State showing the lack of capacity or sustained concern in responding to the needs of the vulnerable, and largely abandoning the task to the charity of international organisations and groups. This is a huge indictment of the leadership and an indication of the erosion of the State.
It will augur well if the Tinubu administration pays real attention to nuetering the drivers of conflict and instability in the country, while acting in a more responsive and sustained manner to the lot of its citizens who have fallen victims of conflict and other debilitating situations, a critical segment of which are IDPs.
