Nigeria’s Internally Displaced Persons Climb to 8.1 Million, Highest in West Africa

Nigeria currently hosts the largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in West Africa, with numbers reaching approximately 8.18 million. This is according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ June 2025 situation report, as obtained by Sunday PUNCH.

The figure places Nigeria well ahead of its Sahelian neighbours combined. Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Cameroon together account for fewer IDPs, with 3.58 million, 2.06 million, 931,000 and 1.42 million respectively. Nigeria alone represents around 44 per cent of all internally displaced persons in the sub-region.

Compiled from monthly submissions by national agencies, the UNHCR report draws on data from the International Organisation for Migration and numerous NGOs operating across 14 West African nations. It notes that Nigeria’s count excludes nomadic groups in transit and unregistered urban migrants — large but undocumented populations that further complicate the country’s humanitarian outlook.

Displacement in Nigeria surged from 2014, when Boko Haram attacks devastated communities in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Over a decade later, the crisis has expanded, with terror factions splintering and overlapping with violent banditry in Zamfara and Katsina, communal farmer–herder clashes in Benue and Plateau, and crude oil-related conflicts in the Niger Delta. As a result, many displaced families settle in informal host communities rather than organised camps, making them harder to reach with aid.

The report also shows that similar drivers — jihadist attacks, Islamic State incursions and livestock conflicts — have fuelled displacements elsewhere in the Sahel, though Nigeria’s numbers have grown more rapidly. Analysts link this to the country’s population density and comparatively robust road network, which allows households to move repeatedly in search of safety.

Meanwhile, Nigeria functions both as a refuge and as a source of displaced populations. It currently shelters about 223,000 refugees, mostly Cameroonians fleeing the Anglophone separatist conflict, while an estimated 2.76 million Nigerians live as refugees or asylum seekers abroad.

The country’s National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), created under the Babangida administration in 1989, oversees these issues alongside the Nigerian Immigration Service, under UN guidelines.

However, the UN’s 2025 regional humanitarian response plan remains severely underfunded. Of the $1.3 billion requested for West Africa this year, only 37 per cent had been received by June. This shortfall has led to ration cuts and stalled livelihood programmes meant to keep IDPs from drifting into urban slums — conditions some fear could fuel recruitment by armed groups.