Millions of Nigerians have fled their homes due to violence in the country’s northeast. And many are now struggling amid soaring inflation.
It reached a four-year record high of 18% in March this year.
Prices of foods including eggs, onions and palm oil have risen by at least 30% in Africa’s largest economy.
Aisha Umar, a widowed mother from Borno State, has been living with her eight children in a displaced peoples camp for seven years:
“I don’t get any help. I’m the sole provider for the children,” she says.
“The money isn’t enough to go around anymore. I have to pay for education, healthcare, and clothes.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross provides microeconomic grants to help Umar and others start small businesses. But the steep inflation is making it hard for them to stay afloat.
Armed conflict
Over a decade of armed conflict has left more than 2 million people displaced in the North-East of Nigeria.
Making it one of the world’s most complex humanitarian emergencies.
Sarrah el Moumouhi is from the ICRC: “Families talk about the difficulty they have to access basic needs such as basic healthcare services or education. People talk about having lost access to their farming land or having lost the ability or the resources.”
Rising unemployment and political insecurity in farming regions are also threatening to plunge more of the nation’s formerly middle-class into financial difficulty.
The World Bank estimates that the drastic price changes in 2020 pushed 7 million more Nigerians into poverty.
With around 40% of the population now living below the country’s poverty line.
