Nigeria is witnessing a troubling surge in the number of Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs), with humanitarian agencies warning that the crisis is expanding beyond the traditional conflict zones and placing millions of lives at risk.
Recent data from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicates that over 3.7 million Nigerians are internally-displaced. The March 2026 data show that there is a growing number of Nigerians who are internally displaced.
Internally-Displaced Persons, referred to as IDPs, are people who have been forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, persecution, or disasters. These people are provided with settlements known as IDP camps, created to shelter people who have been forced to flee their homes, but remain within Nigeria’s borders.
Displacement in Nigeria has grown immensely over the past decades due to recorded cases of banditry, farmer-herder conflicts, political violence, climate and environmental disaster, insurgency, and terrorism.
The most affected states in Nigeria are: Benue, Borno, Zamfara, Adamawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Yobe, Bauchi, Kaduna, Yobo, Taraba, Gombe, Niger, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kano, and Kogi. States such as Borno, Benue, Zamfara, Adamawa, Katsina, and Sokoto have the highest number of displaced persons in Nigeria.
In Borno state, 1.7 million people are internally displaced, Benue 464,543 people; Zamfara 279,224 people; Adamawa 219,016 people; Katsina 206,071 people; Sokoto state has 181,526 people; Yobe state has 162,648 people; Bauchi 141,816 people.
Other states like Kaduna have 115,466; Taraba has 49,833 people; Gombe has 48,184 people; Niger has 45,564 people; Plateau has 45,212 people; Nasarawa has 26,760 people, while Kano has 11,247 people. The least state with the number of IDPs is Kogi, with 2,511 persons displaced in Nigeria.
In August 2025, the World Bank approved the sum of $300 million in financing for the Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project (SOLID).
According to Mathew Verghis, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, the purpose of the project is to ensure the empowerment of IDPs living in Nigeria.
