Almost 72,000 people were displaced by floods, heavy rainfall and windstorms in Katsina State between January 2025 and January 2026, more than the nearly 60,000 displaced by banditry and kidnapping during the same period, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said.
More than 138,000 people were displaced by reported incidents in the state during the one-year period.
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Sharon Dimanche, Chief of Mission of IOM Nigeria, disclosed the figures on Friday at a media briefing on displacement and peacebuilding in North-west Nigeria, held in Katsina.
“Almost 72,000 of those displacements followed floods, heavy rainfall or windstorms. Almost 60,000 were linked to armed banditry and kidnapping,” Ms Dimanche said.
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She said insecurity was not the only cause of displacement in Katsina, noting that families forced from their homes by violence or extreme weather often suffer similar consequences.
Those consequences include lost livelihoods, disrupted schooling, fear, uncertainty and pressure on host communities.
“A family does not experience displacement in categories,” she said.
737,073 displaced across North-west
IOM said its latest assessment recorded 737,073 internally displaced people across the North-west states.
Almost 181,000 of them are in Katsina, while more than 261,000 are in Zamfara.
The agency also recorded almost 147,000 returnees across the North-west, including more than 37,000 in Katsina.
Among the displaced population recorded in the assessment, banditry and kidnapping accounted for the largest share.
IOM said almost 620,000 of the more than 737,000 displaced people, about 84 per cent, were forced from their homes by armed banditry and kidnapping.
Ms Dimanche said the scale of the crisis affects more than just the North-west, as insecurity and displacement disrupt food production, education, livelihoods, local economies and social cohesion.
“What is happening in the North-West is not simply a regional issue. It is a national issue,” she said.
While displacement continues, IOM also recorded people returning to their communities.
Ms Dimanche said that across the North-west and North-central regions combined, the assessed number of internally displaced people fell by nearly five per cent between October 2025 and February 2026, while the number of returnees rose by nearly five per cent.
But she warned against treating every return as a lasting solution.
“The question is not simply: Have they returned? The real question is: Can they stay? Can they rebuild their lives? Can they feel safe again?” she said.
She said returnees need security, livelihoods, schools and other basic services, while the conditions that forced them to leave must also be addressed.
Early-warning committees
The briefing also reviewed the Conflict Prevention, Crisis Response and Resilience (CPCRR) project being implemented in Katsina and Zamfara with funding from the European Union.
IOM is implementing the project with Mercy Corps and the Centre for Democracy and Development.
The programme covers selected local government areas in Katsina and Zamfara and focuses on conflict prevention, crisis response, resilience and community stabilisation.
Jean Nahesi Kutumbakana, an IOM programme official who presented details of the intervention, said the project had achieved about 87 per cent of its planned activities, with outstanding work expected to be completed before the 18-month intervention ends.
He said 80 community peace and resilience committees had been established in Katsina and Zamfara, while 1,700 community members and other stakeholders had been trained in conflict prevention, early warning and early response.
IOM also engaged 160 key informants along transhumance routes and said it had monitored 41 movements involving 2,405 herders and 60,044 livestock.
Eleven early-warning and transhumance flow-monitoring reports have also been produced, Mr Kutumbakana said.
He explained that informants along livestock routes alert communities about approaching herders.
Where crops have not been harvested, communities can ask the herders to delay their movement until harvesting is completed, he said.
The arrangement is intended to prevent livestock from entering farms and triggering disputes between farmers and herders.
Mr Kutumbakana said community peace committees also pass information through technical and standing committees so that disputes can be addressed before they escalate.
He said incidents had reduced substantially in communities where the peacebuilding and early-warning system operates, but no comparative figures were provided at the briefing to quantify the reduction.
Psychosocial, livelihood support
IOM said 50 members of psychosocial mobile teams, comprising 25 men and 25 women, had been trained to provide psychosocial and protection services.
The teams have supported 49,316 people, according to figures presented at the briefing.
Another 552 people, including women, men, young people and persons with disabilities, received livelihood assistance combined with mental health and psychosocial support.
The programme also distributed 4,000 economic tree seedlings to 2,000 households and climate-smart agriculture kits to 300 beneficiaries.
Two hundred beneficiaries in Zamfara received livestock kits, while IOM said a similar distribution was planned for Katsina.
Mr Kutumbakana said the programme had also identified 300 at-risk young people and women, mainly in Zamfara, for peacebuilding and skills training. IOM said they would receive livelihood kits after completing the training.
Funding constraints
Ms Dimanche said the CPCRR project was approaching the end of its implementation period at a time when IOM and other humanitarian organisations were facing funding constraints.
READ ALSO: IOM says scarce funds threaten North-west peacebuilding
She also identified insecurity and restricted access as challenges when tracking or assisting displaced people and returnees in some locations.
IOM periodically verifies its displacement data because people continue to move between locations, she said.
Ms Dimanche warned that gains recorded under programmes approaching their end could be difficult to sustain without continued support and government involvement.
“If we are serious about reducing displacement, we cannot only become better at responding after people flee,” she said.
“We have to become better at preventing the conditions that force them to flee in the first place.”
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