By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
SOS Children’s Villages, Nigeria, said insecurity has displaced over 3.4 million people in the country.
The agency in a statement issued on Monday by its National Director,
Eghosa Erhumwunse, said the figure driven by both insurgency in the North-East and rampant banditry in the North-West—with women and children constituting nearly 80 per cent of this vulnerable population.
“In these volatile settings, women face systemic exposure to Gender-Based Violence (GBV), including abduction, trafficking, and forced marriage used as a tactic of war.
“Humanitarian assessments indicate that at least one in three women in these zones experiences physical or sexual violence, often exacerbated by the lack of gender-segregated sanitation and safe access to water points. “Furthermore, the collapse of local justice mechanisms and the loss of legal documentation leave displaced women in a ‘protection gap,’ where fragile systems translate directly into the systemic violation of their fundamental rights
“As the world marks International Women’s Day 2026 under the theme ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,’ we are reminded that for those in Nigeria’s most volatile regions, protection remains far below acceptable standards. Progress toward gender equality can no longer be symbolic; it must be structural. Rights without enforcement are merely promises on paper; justice without accessibility—especially for the displaced and rural poor—is a form of exclusion; and action without accountability leaves the most vulnerable to navigate fragile systems alone. True equality requires moving beyond rhetoric to the robust financing and policing of the frameworks meant to protect them.
“For women and girls living in humanitarian, conflict-affected, and disaster-prone communities in Nigeria, these truths are lived realities. “Emergencies intensify existing inequalities. Displacement disrupts livelihoods, fractures social protection systems, and increases exposure to violence. Floods and climate shocks destroy homes, farmland, and informal businesses, sectors where women thrive and often dominate.
“In these contexts, protection systems are overstretched, legal pathways are difficult to access, and women’s participation in recovery planning remains limited or merely consultative.
“Yet women consistently stand at the frontlines of crisis response. When conflict or disaster disrupts communities, it is women who reorganize survival; they form food networks, sustaining informal livelihoods, caring for children, providing psychosocial support, and stabilizing households. Long before formal systems respond, women are already rebuilding social cohesion and holding families together. Their resilience is the backbone of recovery. But resilience must not be romanticized or used to excuse systemic failure. Praising women’s strength while leaving protection gaps unaddressed risks normalizing injustice. Strength should not replace safety, and survival should not substitute for rights. True recovery is built not on how much women can endure, but on how effectively systems protect, include, and uphold their rights.
“The 2026 theme of IWD26 challenges the global community to move beyond incremental change. In Nigeria, it demands urgent and deliberate reforms. It calls for the removal of discriminatory legal and customary barriers that undermine women’s inheritance, land ownership, and economic participation. It demands strengthened enforcement of existing protection laws, particularly in conflict-affected states where impunity remains pervasive. It requires survivor-centred justice systems that prioritize confidentiality, dignity, and accessibility. It insists on safe and inclusive humanitarian services that integrate protection, WASH, health, and psychosocial support. It compels equal representation of women in decision-making at every level of emergency response and recovery — from camp management committees to national reconstruction frameworks.”
