The Federal Government has warned that untreated psychological trauma among children displaced by conflict could worsen Nigeria’s mental health burden and contribute to future violence, extremism and insecurity.

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

Doro disclosed that 79.7 per cent of displaced Nigerian children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while 84.8 per cent experience depression. He added that 90.7 per cent have functional difficulties affecting areas such as learning, relationships and sleep.

According to the minister, the figures demonstrate the psychological cost of years of insurgency, terrorism and displacement, highlighting the need to expand humanitarian interventions beyond food, shelter and physical protection.

He warned that children who enter adulthood with untreated trauma could place long-term pressure on Nigeria’s education, healthcare and security systems.

Doro cited a study conducted in Chibok, Borno State, which found that 41.5 per cent of children exposed to Boko Haram insurgency met the clinical threshold for PTSD. He also referenced a wider African analysis that put conflict-related PTSD among children on the continent at almost 36 per cent.

Special Adviser to the President on Health, Dr Salma Ibrahim Anas, said Maiduguri was deliberately chosen for the dialogue because of Borno’s prolonged exposure to insurgency.

She said the forum was intended to shift the country’s approach from isolated responses to a coordinated national policy based on research and evidence.

Anas recalled the experience of a woman who fled Bama with seven children but arrived at the Dalori Internally Displaced Persons camp with only one, without knowing the whereabouts of the others.

She said such experiences showed that the effects of displacement continued even after victims reached physical safety.

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

He added that the 2026 plan identified 5.9 million people requiring assistance, but funding remained inadequate to meet the scale of the crisis.

The UNICEF representative, Francis Otuochi, also disclosed that an estimated 270,864 children across the three states required mental health and psychosocial support under the 2026 humanitarian response plan.

Meanwhile, the Borno State Government warned that failing to address childhood trauma could create conditions for renewed violence and extremist recruitment.

Deputy Governor Umar Usman Kadafur, who represented Governor Babagana Zulum at the dialogue, said the impact of the insurgency extended beyond deaths, destroyed infrastructure and displacement.

He disclosed that more than 1,400 schools had been destroyed across the North-East, while 2,295 teachers had been killed and about 19,000 displaced by the insurgency, leaving nearly three million children in urgent need of emergency education support.

Kadafur warned that children raised amid unresolved trauma, grief, anger and mistrust could become vulnerable to manipulation by extremist groups and criminal networks.

He said addressing the psychological consequences of conflict was therefore essential to breaking the cycle of violence and preventing a new generation from becoming susceptible to recruitment into violent groups.