GUSAU, Zamfara State — No fewer than 271 children were among the 484 people displaced after armed bandits attacked Gummi Local Government Area of Zamfara State on June 15, 2026, the International Organisation for Migration has revealed in a new assessment.
The IOM said the attack displaced 484 people from 101 households, with children accounting for more than half of those forced to flee their homes. The victims fled from Gamo Gidan Bita in Birnin Magaji Ward to Ubandawaki in Magaji Gari Ward following the attack.
According to the flash report, of the 484 displaced persons, 271 were children, while 129 were women and 84 were men. Females accounted for 60 per cent of those displaced, while males made up 40 per cent. The IOM’s age breakdown showed that girls aged six to 12 constituted the largest female age group, accounting for 12 per cent of all displaced persons, while women aged 18 to 59 made up 25 per cent. Adult men within the same age bracket accounted for 16 per cent.
The IOM activated its Displacement Tracking Matrix rapid assessment on June 16, one day after the incident, in line with its 72-hour early warning protocol. The report described the attack as part of a persistent pattern of violence fuelled by “long-standing tensions between farmers and herders, as well as ethnic and religious groups” across the North-West.
The report recorded five casualties from the attack, comprising three deaths and two injuries. It identified food, shelter and non-food items as the most urgent needs of the displaced persons, with all assessed households requiring assistance.
The June 15 attack is the latest in a string of bandit assaults that have continued to plague the North-West since 2011. What began as farmer-herder disputes has evolved into organised armed criminality affecting Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi states.
Data cited by Human Rights Watch from SBM Intelligence showed that Zamfara recorded 1,203 kidnapping incidents between July 2024 and June 2025, the highest in the country, followed by Kaduna with 629 and Katsina with 566. The report also documented 4,722 kidnapping cases nationwide during the period.
The latest displacement adds to the more than 143,189 internally displaced persons forced from their homes across the North-West between December 2025 and June 2026, bringing the region’s displaced population to over 794,018. Within the same period, at least 8,521 Nigerians fled insecurity in the North-West and North-East to seek refuge in Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
As of early 2026, Zamfara’s internally displaced population had risen to 279,224, an increase of 74,648 from the previous reporting period.
Security forces have intensified operations across Zamfara in response to the escalating attacks. On June 25, police and other security agencies repelled coordinated bandit attacks in Birnin Magaji and Bungudu Local Government Areas, killing four suspected bandits and recovering a motorcycle. Troops of the 8 Division Garrison, Sector 2 of Operation Fansan Yamma also foiled a planned attack in Shinkafi Local Government Area, recovering a PKT machine gun, ammunition, two motorcycles and eight pairs of military uniforms.
The federal government has allocated N5.41 trillion to defence and security in the 2026 budget, the largest security allocation in the country’s history, yet insecurity continues to escalate. Civil society groups have called for an independent audit of defence expenditure and a declaration of a national emergency on insecurity.
