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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.
The IOM, in a fresh assessment obtained by Saturday PUNCH, said the attack displaced 484 people from 101 households, with children accounting for more than half of those forced to flee their homes.
The figures are contained in two IOM reports on Nigeria obtained by Saturday PUNCH. They include Flash Report 291 on Population Displacement, obtained on June 25, and the Displacement Tracking Matrix’s Transhumance Tracking Tool Dashboard 20, which covers field data from 33 monitoring points across Katsina and Zamfara states in May 2026.
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, according to an earlier analysis of the UNHCR Nigeria Forcibly Displaced Populations Dashboard by Saturday PUNCH.
According to the flash report, the victims fled from Gamo Gidan Bita in Birnin Magaji Ward to Ubandawaki in Magaji Gari Ward following the June 15 attack.
The IOM said its Displacement Tracking Matrix activated a rapid assessment on June 16, one day after the incident, in line with its 72-hour early warning protocol.
It 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.
Of the 484 displaced persons, 271 were children, while 129 were women and 84 were men.
The report added that 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. Infants below one year also featured among the displaced population.
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.
As of early 2026, Zamfara’s internally displaced population had risen to 279,224, an increase of 74,648 from the previous reporting period. Separate IOM data also showed that attacks in neighbouring Katsina State displaced 3,830 people from 517 households between May 21 and June 1.
Meanwhile, the IOM’s Transhumance Tracking Tool Dashboard showed that 388 herders moved 10,572 livestock across Katsina and Zamfara states in May 2026. The animals comprised 6,527 cattle, 2,205 sheep, 1,303 goats and 537 other livestock.
The report identified Zamfara as the country’s third-largest destination for livestock migration during the period, receiving 1,528 animals, while the Kaduna–Zamfara corridor emerged as the busiest domestic transhumance route.
According to the IOM, desertification, climate change, inadequate rainfall and rapid population growth continue to intensify competition over land and water resources, worsening conflicts between farming and pastoral communities across the North-West.
Efforts to obtain a reaction from the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls or messages as of the time of filing this report.
