The Zamfara State Government has warned that fragile improvements in peace and community resilience could be undermined if international development support is withdrawn too quickly from conflict-affected areas.
The warning came as the International Organisation for Migration reviewed the achievements of its Conflict Prevention, Crisis Response and Resilience programme in Zamfara and the wider North-West.
State Commissioner for Budget and Planning Yahya Zakari, representing Governor Dauda Lawal, appealed for sustained international engagement and additional funding after the current phase of the programme ends.
He said interventions had helped conflict-affected communities rebuild livelihoods, strengthen peace structures and develop mechanisms for preventing local disputes from escalating.
The state argued that armed banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder conflict, displacement, poverty and climate pressures continued to threaten communities across the region.
IOM Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Taha Amr said the programme had reached nearly 70,000 beneficiaries.
Interventions covered peace building, livelihood recovery, climate resilience, protection, mental health and essential services.
The European Union said it had invested more than €5 million in the programme because of the scale of insecurity and displacement affecting the North-West.
EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS Gautier Mignot said the initiative focused on early warning, mediation, dialogue and locally anchored conflict prevention.
He urged state authorities to ensure that institutions strengthened through international support continued to function after external funding ended.
The meeting also coincided with the announcement of a broader €25 million European Union intervention for the North-West.
Stakeholders said the long-term challenge was to connect security operations with economic recovery, climate adaptation and local dispute-resolution structures capable of reducing the conditions that armed groups exploit.
