Updated

About 64,000 people have fled violence in northern Nigeria to Niger since the start of the year, and the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday 10 November 2026. Several hundred have also left for Benin, and host countries are struggling to cope with the arrivals. Niger already hosted more than half a million refugees and asylum-seekers, including about 327,500 from Nigeria, before 2026 began, and it is also dealing with insecurity, climate shocks and overstretched services. In October alone, about 1,200 people crossed into Diffa in the south-east and 3,400 into Tahoua in the west. UNHCR said newly arrived refugees, many of them children, face very difficult conditions, with high malnutrition, limited food and clean water, makeshift shelters, poor hygiene and widespread respiratory infections. Only about five per cent of Nigerian refugees who arrived this year have been registered, because of a lack of funds, and children from Nigeria's English-language school system have no schools or transitional classes in some places. UNHCR said the violence is fuelling a growing humanitarian crisis across the whole region, driven by overlapping jihadist insurgencies, armed banditry and farmer-herder conflicts. UNHCR's Dominique Hyde praised what she called "remarkable solidarity" from Niger's authorities and host communities, including land made available for temporary shelter, but said their capacity is increasingly stretched. The agency is seeking $11.4 million to scale up its response in Niger, Nigeria and Benin, including a $2 million appeal for immediate needs such as water, food, shelter, health care, registration and protection, and warned that thousands of vulnerable families risk being left without assistance.