A newly published research paper in The Lancet has delivered a sobering assessment of Nigeria’s ongoing crisis of violence, revealing that more than 169,000 people died from violence-related causes between 2006 and 2021.

Led by Dr Faithful Daniel, a Nigerian public health expert and head of First On Call Initiative, the study calls for a complete shift in how the country and global community understand and respond to Nigeria’s insecurity crisis.

“This is not just about criminals or bandits,” Dr Daniel said in an interview on Friday. “This is a public health emergency that has gone unchecked for far too long.”

The paper is the result of a collaboration between First On Call Initiative and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Co-authors include Nimnan Tyem, Bonaventure Ukoaka, Geneva Magsino, and Feyi Ayanlowo.

The findings are grim. From 2015 to 2023, the researchers documented 63,111 deaths, followed by 6,931 more between June 2023 and March 2024. The first three months of 2025 added another 1,420 deaths and 537 kidnappings to the toll. “We are not recovering,” Dr Daniel said. “We are unraveling.”

The report highlights how violent deaths are deeply interconnected with wider issues of state fragility, from health infrastructure to food security and internal displacement. “Insecurity shuts down clinics, forces health workers to flee, and leaves women giving birth without skilled care. Children die of preventable diseases because help can’t reach them,” Dr Daniel explained. “It’s a chain reaction and we are failing to stop it.”

The paper identifies the key drivers behind the crisis: terror attacks, village raids, student abductions, and assaults on road and rail travellers. Dr Daniel stressed the importance of context in addressing the problem. “The nature of violence in Borno is different from that in Benue or Katsina. Solutions must be local and informed by community realities.”

He urged the Nigerian government to invest in violence-related data systems, strengthen community-level responses, hold violent actors accountable, and rebuild trust in institutions. He also called on international agencies to treat the situation with the same urgency given to infectious disease outbreaks.

“If violence were a virus killing this many Nigerians, we would call it a global emergency,” he said. “Why is it any different when it’s bullets and machetes?”

As the paper circulates through academic, humanitarian, and policymaking spaces, Dr Daniel’s message is clear: “Every violent death that could have been prevented is a failure of leadership. And the longer we wait, the more we lose not just lives, but the systems that sustain life.”