Internally displaced people (IDPs) have not crossed a border to find safety. Unlike refugees, they are on the run at home. IDPs stay within their own country and remain under the protection of its government, even if that government is the reason for their displacement. According to the internal displacement monitoring center (IDMC), causes of displacements in Nigeria are primarily due to insurgency in the Northeast, surge of inter-communal conflicts, massive flooding, amongst others. Policy actions have mostly been focused on safe returns.

The drivers of displacement in Nigeria are multi-faceted and complex and often overlap. The militant Islamist group Boko Haram has triggered significant displacement in the marginalized north-east of the country since 2014. Competition between pastoralists and farmers has caused tensions in the central region, culminating in significant levels of violence and displacement. Long-standing ethnic conflict between Fulani pastoralists and Hausa farmers in north-western Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara states also triggers displacement. Flooding displaces thousands of people every year.

Conflict and violence led to 248,000 new displacements across 19 states in 2019. The ongoing insurgency in the north-east triggered 105,000, criminal violence in the north-west and north-central states 88,000, and communal violence in the central region 55,000. About 2.6 million people were living in displacement as of the end of the year. Flooding affected most of the country in 2019 and triggered most of the 157,000 new displacements recorded.

Event Mission

IDPs’ main concerns relate to food, health, and shelter. The disruption of agriculture, markets, and trade routes caused by violence and the presence of unexploded ordnance have contributed to widespread food insecurity. IDPs’ arrival often puts additional strain on host communities’ already scarce resources, and the latter may struggle to accommodate the influx of more mouths to feed. Host community members tend not to receive equal humanitarian assistance, which jeopardizes IDPs’ security and may trigger new and secondary displacement as competition and tensions over resources boil over.

Event Location

Our pilot IDP camp is Area 1, Abuja, Nigeria. There are 2830 internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Durumi, Abuja, Nigeria, that do not know where their next meal is coming from. No hunger Food Bank exists to ensure that no one in the IDP Camp will go hungry.