The number of Nigerian refugees who voluntarily returned home under a tripartite repatriation agreement more than doubled in the first quarter of 2026, rising from 1,705 in February to 3,510 by April, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The data, drawn from three successive Forcibly Displaced Populations dashboards published by UNHCR for February, March, and April 2026, shows that returnees stood at 1,705 in February, jumped to 3,083 in March, and rose further to 3,510 in April. The total first-quarter increase of 1,805 returnees represents a 106 per cent rise from February.
All returnees documented are Nigerian refugees returning from Cameroon, Chad, and Niger Republic under a tripartite voluntary repatriation agreement, returning to their areas of origin in Borno State, the epicentre of the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgency.
The number of Nigerian refugees still registered in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger stood at 406,672 in February and declined slightly to 405,062 by March and April. Cameroon alone hosts 124,382 Nigerian refugees, followed by Niger with 258,777 and Chad with 21,999.
Domestically, total internally displaced persons rose from 3,544,519 in February to 3,711,314 in March, an increase of 166,795 in just one month. The sharpest increase came from the North West, where the IDP count leapt from 650,345 in February to 793,534 in March, driven overwhelmingly by the relentless banditry campaign across Zamfara, Katsina, and Sokoto states.
The North East held 2,333,190 IDPs as of March and April, up from 2,292,477 in February, with 92 per cent of the displacement attributed to insurgency. The North Central region recorded 584,590 IDPs.
A state-by-state review of the April 2026 dashboard shows that Benue hosts 464,543 IDPs, the largest in the North Central, while Zamfara hosts 279,224 IDPs, the largest in the North West outside Borno.
Nigerians currently constitute 3.5 per cent of the world’s 117 million forcibly displaced persons, according to UNHCR’s situation overview. In August 2025, the World Bank approved $300 million in financing for the Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project, expected to benefit up to 7.4 million people.
