50.2% of Nigeria's displaced persons are children

Internally displaced women and children gather at an IDP camp in the Garga Village in the Kanam Local Government Area of the Plateau state on April 12, 2022 (Photo by AFP)

A staggering 50.2% of the entire internally displaced persons (IDP) population of 1,134,828 are minors, representing more than half of the IDP population in Nigeria.

This was revealed in a recent National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) publication titled “Report of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria 2023.”

“Further analysis reveals that out of the total population of surveyed IDPs, 50.3 percent were mainly minors and below the age of 18 years. Only 49.7 per cent were within the age of 18 years and above,” the publication read in part.

The United Nations defined IDPs as persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border.

Nigeria has been experiencing an overwhelming IDP population following the worsening insecurity crisis in the North, particularly in the Northeastern and Northwestern states of the country.

The NBS also attributes this to other factors such as conflict, violence and natural disasters.

Among the IDP population, more than half of them have never attended school, and an abysmal 0.4% of the population had completed tertiary education and other educational levels.

The NBS described this as one of Nigeria’s most pressing humanitarian crises.

“The internal displacement of persons, which is the forced movement of people within their own country due to conflict, violence, natural disasters, or other crises, without crossing international borders, constitutes one of the most pressing humanitarian crises in Nigeria.

“The displacement is induced by a combination of factors such as Boko Haram insurgency in the North East region, Banditry/kidnapping in the North West region, armed conflict, and communal clashes in other parts of the country.”

The report also revealed that the Boko insurgency, farmers-herder conflict, and banditry reported 81.2%, 16.2%, and 1.6% of displacement, making insecurity the major source of displacement in Nigeria despite the existence of other contributory factors.

“This indicates that the displacement of persons is more human-induced than flooding or any other form of natural disaster.”