UN Warns Hunger Fuels Bandit Recruitment in Northern Nigeria

Communities in Nigeria’s conflict-hit north say some people join armed groups and bandits simply to secure food or earn a living. The World Food Programme reports over 17 million people across nine states now face crisis, emergency, or catastrophic hunger. Since 2009, a jihadist insurgency in the northeast has spread into the northwest, overlapping with violent bandit gangs. This violence has driven many from their farms, forced displacement, and blocked humanitarian access, the WFP notes. Aid cuts by Western donors and rising poverty under recent economic reforms have hit Nigeria’s poorest households hard. In Borno state alone, more than three million people are acutely food insecure, including 10,000 facing the most severe hunger levels.

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