West and Central Africa — Lake Chad Basin Crisis Monthly Dashboard 59 (December 2023)

The crisis currently affecting the Lake Chad Basin states results from a complex combination of factors, including conflict with non-state armed groups, extreme poverty, underdevelopment and a changing climate, which together have triggered significant displacement of populations.

As of December 2023, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria were hosting an estimated 6,067,507 affected individuals made up of internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees (former IDPs and returnees from abroad) and refugees (both in- and out-of-camp). Thirteen per cent of the affected population (774,927  individuals) were located in Cameroon, while 5 per cent resided in Chad (288,334 individuals), 9 per cent in Niger (524,511 individuals) and finally, 74 per cent in Nigeria (4,479,735 individuals). Overall, the numbers show a slight decrease in IDPs (-2%) but increases in returnees and refugees since December 2022. The IDPs numbers have increased in Cameroon (+18%) and Niger (+4%) but have shown a slight decrease in Nigeria (-6%).