File image for illustration.
Communities in northern Nigerian have reported cases of individuals joining bandits so they can have food or income. This is just as hunger across Nigeria’s conflict-hit North is at levels not seen in a decade as violence spreads and aid shrinks.
These revelations were made by the UN’s World Food Programme on Thursday. It noted that more than 17 million people experiencing “crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels” of hunger.
The country has been battling a jihadist insurgency centred in the northeast since 2009, with a resurgence in violence since 2025.
Jihadists have also been expanding into the northwest, which is already facing a separate, overlapping crisis from armed “bandit” gangs.
