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, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The IOM, in a rapid assessment said that the attack displaced 484 people from 101 households, with children accounting for more than half of those forced to flee.
The figures are contained in the IOM’s Flash Report 291 on Population Displacement and the Displacement Tracking Matrix’s Transhumance Tracking Tool Dashboard 20, covering field data collected across Katsina and Zamfara states in May 2026.
The latest incident adds to more than 143,189 internally displaced persons recorded across Nigeria’s North-West between December 2025 and June 2026, bringing the region’s displaced population to more than 794,000, according to the report.
The IOM said the victims fled from Gamo Gidan Bita in Birnin Magaji Ward to Ubandawaki in Magaji Gari Ward after the June 15 attack.
The agency activated its Displacement Tracking Matrix rapid assessment on June 16, one day after the incident, under its 72-hour emergency response protocol.
The report described the attack as part of persistent violence driven 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, 129 were women and 84 were men. Females accounted for 60% of those displaced, while males made up 40%.
The IOM said girls aged 6 to 12 represented the largest female age group among the displaced, accounting for 12% of the total population. Women aged 18 to 59 made up 25%, while men in the same age bracket accounted for 16%. Infants younger than one year were also among those displaced.
The report recorded five casualties, including three deaths and two injuries.
It identified food, shelter and non-food items as the most urgent humanitarian needs, noting that all affected households required assistance.
The June 15 attack is the latest in a series of bandit assaults that have affected Nigeria’s North-West since 2011. What began as farmer-herder disputes has evolved into organized armed criminality across 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. Kaduna recorded 629 cases, while Katsina had 566. Nationwide, 4,722 kidnapping incidents were documented during the period.
The IOM said Zamfara’s internally displaced population had risen to 279,224 as of early 2026, an increase of 74,648 from the previous reporting period. Separate IOM data showed that attacks in neighboring Katsina State displaced 3,830 people from 517 households between May 21 and June 1.
Meanwhile, the IOM’s Transhumance Tracking Tool Dashboard reported that 388 herders moved 10,572 livestock across Katsina and Zamfara states in May. The livestock included 6,527 cattle, 2,205 sheep, 1,303 goats and 537 other animals.
The report identified Zamfara as Nigeria’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 response from the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls or messages before publication.
