Conflict Trauma: Eight in 10 Displaced Nigerian Children Suffering PTSD, Says FG

• Untreated trauma may fuel new generation of violence, Borno govt warns

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The federal government has raised the alarm over a growing mental-health crisis among children displaced by conflict, revealing that nearly eight in every 10 affected children suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while more than four in five battle depression.

The government said the crisis was no longer only a humanitarian concern but a threat with potential consequences for Nigeria’s education system, public health, and national security if the psychological wounds of childhood displacement were left untreated.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, disclosed that on Wednesday in Maiduguri, at the National Dialogue on the Psychosocial Impact of Conflict on Children in Nigeria.

According to Doro, 79.7 per cent of displaced Nigerian children have PTSD, 84.8 per cent experience depression, while 90.7 per cent suffer functional impairments that affect their learning, relationships and sleep.

Doro said the statistics provided measurable evidence of the hidden cost of years of insurgency, terrorism, and displacement. He said humanitarian interventions could no longer focus exclusively on food, shelter, and physical safety.

“A child who has been fed, but not healed in mind, has not truly been rescued,” he said.

He warned that children carrying untreated trauma into adulthood could place a substantial burden on Nigeria’s schools, hospitals, and security institutions for years to come.

Doro said, “None of this is a charity; it is an investment. Untreated trauma in a generation of children is a cost that returns to our schools, our clinics, and our security architecture for decades.”

The minister said evidence from Borno further illustrated the severity of the problem, citing a study in Chibok, which found that 41.5 per cent of children exposed to Boko Haram insurgency met the clinical threshold for PTSD.

He also referenced a continent-wide analysis that estimated conflict-related PTSD among African children at nearly 36 per cent.

Earlier, Special Adviser to the President on Health, Dr Salma Ibrahim Anas, said the decision to hold the dialogue in Maiduguri was deliberate, given Borno’s prolonged exposure to insurgency.

Anas said the gathering was designed to move the discussion from isolated interventions to a national policy response based on research and evidence.

She recalled the case of a woman, who escaped from Bama with seven children but arrived at the Dalori Internally Displaced Persons camp with only one, without knowing what had happened to the others.

For Anas, such experiences demonstrated that displacement did not end when a person reached a camp or another place of safety.

Representing the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ballama Mustapha said 7.8 million people required humanitarian assistance across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe under the 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan, including approximately 1.8 million children.

Mustapha added that the 2026 plan identified 5.9 million people for assistance, but available funding remained insufficient to meet the scale of humanitarian needs.

“The wounds we cannot see must not become the reason we fail to act,” Mustapha said.

The UNICEF representative, Francis Otuochi, said an estimated 270,864 children in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe required mental health and psychosocial support under the 2026 humanitarian needs and response plan.

At the same time, Borno State Government warned that untreated psychological trauma among children affected by insurgency could fuel a new generation of violence, recruitment into extremist groups, and social instability, turning the mental health crisis in Nigeria’s conflict-affected communities into a national security threat.

The warning came as the state disclosed that more than 1,400 schools had been destroyed across the North-east, 2,295 teachers killed, and about 19,000 displaced by years of insurgency, leaving nearly three million children in urgent need of emergency education support.

Deputy Governor of Borno State, Umar Usman Kadafur, who represented Governor Babagana Zulum, gave the warning at the two-day National Dialogue on the Psychosocial Impact of Conflict on Children in Nigeria, held in Maiduguri.

Kadafur said the consequences of the insurgency could not be measured only by lives lost, infrastructure destroyed, or people displaced, stressing that the deepest and potentially most dangerous impact is the psychological damage inflicted on children.

He warned that children who grew up with untreated trauma, grief, anger, and mistrust could become vulnerable to manipulation by violent extremist groups and criminal networks.

“If left untreated, it creates a pipeline of bitterness, alienation, and vulnerability to recruitment, perpetuating the very cycle of violence we are fighting to end,” he said.