Food Security and Nutrition Among Internally Displaced School Children in North-East Nigeria: A Mixed-Methods Study

Amina Tani Ibrahim; Larai A. Keswet; Zakka G. Ayuba

doi:10.56201/ijee.v12.no.3.2026.pg463.475

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Food Security and Nutrition Among Internally Displaced School Children in North-East Nigeria: A Mixed-Methods Study

Amina Tani Ibrahim, Larai A. Keswet, and Zakka G. Ayuba

Abstract

Children of primary school age displaced by the insurgency in North-East Nigeria are rarely studied as a group in their own right, and little is known about their food security in camps. This study described food security and nutrition among households of internally displaced school children aged 6 to 12 years in North-East Nigeria. A mixed-methods design was used. Parents or caregivers of 388 children completed a 36-item Food Security and Nutrition Questionnaire covering six dimensions (response rate 97.0 per cent), the same 388 households were rated on a 13-item observation checklist, and eight focus group discussions with 48 children explored the same dimensions. All six-dimension means fell below the criterion of 3.00, from 2.16 for utilisation to 2.40 for dietary diversity. Nearly all respondents (97.4 per cent) disagreed that their households had access to land to grow food, 76.5 per cent disagreed that their children usually ate three meals a day, and 44.8 per cent agreed that their children went to bed hungry. Fruits and vegetables were observed to be unavailable in 55.9 per cent of households. The children described two meals a day, starchy diets, unsafe water and food that ran out before the next distribution, and 64.6 per cent said that hunger made it hard to concentrate in class. Attention to water, sanitation, food storage, the regularity of food assistance and school feeding is needed to improve the nutrition of displaced school children.

Keywords

food security; dietary diversity; internally displaced persons; school children; mixed-methods study; Yobe State

References

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Food Security and Nutrition Among Internally Displaced School Children in North-East Nigeria: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

Keywords

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