COVID-19 AND INSECURITY IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2022 Mar 31:1-7. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2022.81. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

Northern Nigeria is currently facing a twin crisis of both COVID-19 and insecurity. They have made it difficult for the people to follow government containment efforts to control the pandemic and also have impacted on the socioeconomic and health aspects of the society. We have discussed on the impact of insecurity amid COVID-19 in Northern Nigeria. It is opined that if the insecurity in Northern Nigeria is not tackled, it will expose the region to more escalation of cases and deaths. Thus, it is recommended that proactive steps should be implemented by all stakeholders concerned to tackle insecurity, particularly the government to revive the security architecture, provide an environment for training and retraining of all security personnel and enhancing intelligence gathering to pave the way for resolving this issue.

Keywords: COVID-19; Northern Nigeria; banditry; insecurity; kidnapping; violence.