Residents in northern Nigeria are increasingly joining armed bandit groups as a means to secure food or wages. This trend emerges as the region faces its most severe food insecurity in ten years, exacerbated by intensifying violence and a significant decline in international aid.
According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), over 17 million Nigerians are currently suffering from crisis or catastrophic levels of hunger. The nation continues to struggle against a long-running jihadist insurgency, which has seen a violent resurgence since 2025 and expanded into the northwest, a region already plagued by local criminal gangs.
WFP regional director for west and central Africa, Kinday Samba, expressed deep concern over the geographic spread of the violence. The instability has displaced families from their farmland and blocked the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance. Compounding the issue are reductions in aid from Western nations and economic policies under President Bola Tinubu, which have led to increased poverty and higher costs of living.
The WFP notes that the number of areas inaccessible to their teams has doubled, leaving large swaths of rural territory vulnerable to armed groups. In Borno state, the heart of the conflict, more than three million people face acute food insecurity. Despite the urgent need, funding shortages have forced the WFP to reduce its operations. While the agency supported 1.3 million people during the 2025 lean season, it now expects to reach only about half that number. Consequently, approximately 5.5 million people in the northeast are left without necessary food aid, prompting many to resort to desperate measures to survive.
