For Safiya Musa, a simple sewing machine represents far more than a tool for tailoring; it is a lifeline that restored her dignity after unimaginable tragedy. Having lost her husband and two young children during a devastating raid by armed bandits in northwest Nigeria, Safiya was forced to flee her home with nothing. Today, in a camp for displaced persons in Jibia, Katsina State, she stitches together fabric to craft handbags—and, in doing so, reconstructs a livelihood for her surviving children.
Safiya’s story mirrors a broader crisis gripping northwestern Nigeria, where a decade-long wave of banditry, kidnappings, and village raids has uprooted thousands of families. Katsina State, which borders Niger, has been particularly hard-hit. In 2023, armed attackers swept through Safiya's former home of Kankara. She hid in terror inside her house while her husband was killed on his farm and two of her youngest children, aged four and six, were caught in the crossfire outside. Reunited with her three older children in Batsari, she was soon forced to flee again when violence struck that town as well, eventually settling in a displacement camp in Jibia.
In the camp, survival was initially a daily struggle. Safiya scraped by grinding grain and taking sporadic manual labor, often unable to provide basic meals for her children. Her turning point came when she was selected for a vocational initiative organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under its Climate Security Project. In March 2024, the program provided 20 conflict-affected women in Jibia with training in handbag manufacturing, alongside sewing machines and raw materials aimed at fostering self-reliance.
"I used to wake up with nothing to offer my children," Safiya recalled. "There were days I sent my boys out with bowls to beg for food because I had nothing to give them. Now I can feed them myself."
The economic impact extends across the community. Jibia's strategic proximity to the border with Niger allows local artisans to supply cross-border markets, such as those in the Maradi region. Another participant, 30-year-old Karima Sule, earns around $50 a month—or even more during peak demand—allowing her to contribute to household expenses and pay school tuition for her children.
However, building an enterprise in an active conflict zone remains fraught with hurdles. Raw material shortages regularly disrupt production, and periodic surges in regional violence force local markets to close, halting trade for days. Furthermore, security experts warn that growing economic activity may inadvertently expose self-made female entrepreneurs to targeted kidnapping for ransom, a rising threat across the region despite local security initiatives like Katsina State's Community Watch Corps.
For Safiya, these economic gains have created a poignant dilemma. While she longs to return to her hometown and reunite her family with extended relatives, leaving Jibia could mean surrendering the financial independence she fought so hard to build. For now, every handbag she stitches serves as both a reminder of what she survived and a foundation for her family's future.