Northeastern Nigeria: How returnees are building back better lives and livelihoods
Yola, Adamawa state - Alheri Bitrus, Rebecca Mohammed, and Amina Yusuf, three women living in Kwarwa, a rural community in Gombi Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State, are turning their lives around. Once heavily reliant on others for sustenance, they now provide for their families thanks to support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Before the insurgency, agriculture was the mainstay of life in Gombi. However, the violent attacks of 2013 forced residents, including these three women, to flee their homes. Upon their return, they faced a daunting reality: rebuilding their lives while grappling with food shortages and limited resources.
To support conflict-affected vulnerable households, FAO implemented the “Emergency Food Security and Livelihood Assistance to Conflict-Affected Populations in Northeast Nigeria” project, thanks to generous funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. A key component of this initiative was the Livestock Restocking Programme, which provided goat or poultry to 300 women.
The project participants recount how the livestock received has contributed to improving their nutrition and family income, enabled them to put their children through school, to invest in their livelihoods, and finally reduced their dependence on neighbours for support.
Alheri Bitrus, a 41-year-old mother of five, is an internally displaced person originally from the Wuro Bokki community, Malabu LGA. She has been living in Kwarwa, Gombi, for over five years, farming with her husband. Receiving four goats (three female and one male) has made a difference in her life. "I now have kids from the two remaining goats from the distribution. We ate one and sold one to buy food supplies and pay my children's school fees. I also used the returns to purchase seeds for the ongoing rainy season farming," says Alheri.
Thanks to the seeds purchased, she hopes to realize four bags of groundnuts (400 kg) and five bags of maize (500 kg) after the harvest. " I can sell some at the market to have some savings and store the rest for the dry season," she said optimistically.
Rebecca Mohammed, a 43-year-old mother of seven, took refuge in Guyuk in 2014 for seven months until her return in 2015. She received 20 pullets in November 2023. Since then, her entrepreneurial spirit enabled the family to make nearly NGN 150 000 (USD 1 00), which she reinvests in her family's well-being.
“When my children fell ill, we used money from our chicken sales to buy medicine, and keep the eggs to consume as they contribute to healthy diets and nutrition. My oldest graduated from secondary school because of the income realized from the sales," she shared proudly.
Amina Yusuf, a 45-year-old mother of five and small business owner, found relief in the four goats she received. A returnee whose shop was razed in a fire in February 2024, she sold two female goats for NGN 75 000 (USD 50) to rebuild her business.
"It would have been more difficult for me to survive the loss of my shop and goods if not for the support from FAO. Now that my other female goat is pregnant, I have hope to rear them to replace the ones I sold and support my children through school," she said.
Oliver Naiwa Chama, a community representative, emphasizes the project's impact. “Women in our community used to depend on whatever their husbands brought home from the farms, but the situation worsened after we returned from the insurgency. They found it difficult to resume livelihoods activities and feed their families. Thanks to FAO's intervention, this has changed.”
FAO's support has equipped these women with the resources to build sustainable livelihoods and enhance food security, thereby bolstering the community's overall resilience and recovery efforts.
Contact for more information
David Karls Tsokar Chukwuka Kelvin Nwachukwu
Communication Specialist Communication and Reporting Specialist
[email protected] [email protected]
+234 806 616 2876 +234 806 457 4408