Policy Brief

A Silent Mental Health Emergency in Nigeria’s Conflict-Affected Regions

November 13, 2025
By admin

Introduction

Nigeria faces a growing mental and psychological health crisis, worsened by complex socioeconomic, environmental, policy, and community awareness challenges. The protracted conflict in the northeast has devastated communities, leading to gruesome deaths, displacement, sexual and gender-based violence, and socioeconomic instability.

These violent experiences have severely impacted the mental and psychological well-being of affected communities. Many people in the region, including women, girls, and children who have survived conflict, escaped abduction, or endured other forms of insecurity, report experiencing nightmares, anxiety, and varying degrees of psychological distress.

Similarly, the ongoing crisis of rural banditry and terrorism in the northwest has triggered widespread mental health challenges, affecting livelihoods, businesses, and overall well-being. These two regions also grapple with struggling economies, climate change, and conflict, further complicating efforts at stabilisation, recovery, resilience-building, and peacebuilding.

From the haunting effects of war relics on communities attempting to rebuild their lives to the lingering trauma of survivors, humanitarian workers, and soldiers who are still fighting an internal war after years at the frontlines, HumAngle has extensively covered the significant effects of conflict on the mental health of all who have come in contact with it.
According to the United Nations-led Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Sub-Working Group (MHPSS), a survey of selected primary healthcare centres and health facilities in displaced persons’ camps in the northeast recorded alarming figures between April and June 2018.

During this period, 1,276 individuals were identified with severe emotional disorders, 1,229 were diagnosed with seizure disorders linked to psychological distress, 925 reported medically unexplained somatic complaints, 774 suffered from psychotic disorders, and 349 had substance use disorders—all among conflict-affected populations.

Where are we?

In January 2023, Nigeria’s president signed the Mental Health Act into law, providing a comprehensive policy and framework for mental health services in Nigeria. However, despite this legislation, mental health remains poorly prioritised.

About 3.3 million internally displaced persons in Nigeria’s conflict-affected states require urgent humanitarian assistance, including psychological support. This figure does not include other conflict actors, such as security personnel, humanitarian and civic actors, and journalists, who face the trauma of reporting conflict daily.

The Mental Health Act mandates the establishment of a mental health services department within the Federal Ministry of Health, tasked with coordinating policies and government services on mental health support.

Recognising the scale of this challenge, HumAngle has a dedicated clinical psychology unit accessible to civic and humanitarian actors, as well as journalists working in conflict-affected communities.

This initiative helps the organisation to identify the urgent need to advocate for expanded access to mental health services for women, girls, children, survivors of conflict, and other vulnerable groups who confront the brutal realities of violence in rural and hard-to-reach communities.

Key findings

The department of Mental Health Services, which is meant to be domiciled at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, has yet to be established.
The federal government does not have a dedicated funding stream for mental and psychological support services. The National Mental Health Act, signed in 2023, provides for the creation of a national mental health fund, to be financed through National Assembly appropriations and private donations. However, this fund has yet to be established.
There is insufficient policy commitment and implementation at the sub-national level for mental and psychological health. At present, only two states—Ekiti and Lagos—have mental health laws, signed in 2021 and 2019, respectively. This reflects the low level of commitment from sub-national governments, particularly in conflict-affected states, and highlights disparities in public mental health support.
Public resources are overstretched, leaving people in conflict-affected communities with limited access to social and educational services. There are little or no reported cases of government-assisted mental and psychosocial support programmes.
While psychological support has been provided to some high-profile cases, such as the abducted Chibok girls and their families, the harsh reality is that many returned abductees have been left to suffer in silence, with no access to mental healthcare or evidence of proper reintegration into society.

The mental health sector faces a severe shortage of trained professionals. Specialisation in mental and psychological disciplines receives limited interest, resulting in a lack of qualified personnel. A study shows that Nigeria has fewer than 500 clinical psychologists and only about 200 psychiatrists, far from what is needed to meet the country’s mental health demands.

Why it matters

The Nigerian government has committed resources to stabilisation and post-conflict reconstruction in the northeast following over a decade of counter-insurgency operations. Development partners, humanitarian organisations, and local and international non-profits have also deployed resources to restore hope among affected communities. Similarly, efforts are being made to strengthen community resilience in the ongoing conflict in the Northwest. However, the outcomes may not be as noticeable if psychological and mental health are not given dedicated attention. Destabilised mental and psychological health affects the population’s well-being, economic and social resilience, recovery, and peacebuilding efforts.

The provision of mental and psychosocial support must be treated as an emergency to prevent reversing the progress that has been made.

What should be done?

The government must ensure the proper implementation of mental health policies at both national and sub-national levels, with clear and measurable goals. This includes establishing the Department of Mental Health Services within the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, as mandated by the Mental Health Act. State governments should also commit to setting up relevant departments and agencies to extend mental and psychological support to grassroots communities.
As the mental health law requires, the government should establish the National Mental Health Fund and ensure the timely release of funds legally allocated to support mental health services.
The government should collaborate with relevant civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing mental health support, while strengthening primary healthcare providers’ capacity to deliver mental and psychological services at the community level.
While high-risk and widely reported incidents should remain a priority, donors, development partners, and the government must ensure that psychosocial assistance is extended to all populations affected by conflict in the northwest and northeast. This requires the development and implementation of contextual, evidence-based interventions.
The Federal Government, through the Nigeria Education Loan Fund or other initiatives, should create specialised pathways that incentivise training in psychology and mental health-related disciplines. This is crucial to improving the current psychologist-to-population ratio of 1:1.6 million, which falls far short of the global standard of 1:10,000.
The National Health Fellows programme presents an opportunity for the Federal Government, under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, to integrate data and information collection on mental and psychological health to improve government decision-making.

Conclusion

Policymakers, donors, and humanitarian workers must recognise the mental health emergency in conflict-affected communities. By addressing this issue, we can mitigate the long-term impact of conflict and support the communities to heal and rebuild. If left unaddressed, it will have far-reaching consequences of increasing vulnerability to radicalisation, decreased economic productivity, and a continued cycle of violence.

A Silent Mental Health Emergency in Nigeria’s Conflict-Affected Regions

Introduction

Where are we?

Key findings

Why it matters

What should be done?

Conclusion

Further reading

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