#HumAngle2025RoundUp: The Stories HumAngle Turned into Action in 2025
In 2025, HumAngle’s journalism did more than document suffering caused by conflicts in Nigeria, Congo, and Sudan, and other African countries, or analyse climate-driven disasters and evolving extremists in Nigeria and the Sahel; we also shaped destinies, shifted policies, and reopened pathways to justice and dignity for people long abandoned by the system.
Across Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities, our stories became catalysts for action, prompting governments, institutions, and ordinary citizens to intervene. This year, lives were rebuilt, promises were revived, and ignored crises finally received the attention they deserved.
We also won or were shortlisted for many awards this year. Our investigation into how IPOB uses online fundraising marathons to sustain its activities won the Illicit Financial Flow Category at the West Africa Media Excellence Conference and Awards. It also earned the journalist, Kunle Adebajo, the 2025 West Africa Journalist of the Year title, a title HumAngle has now clinched two years in a row. The same story earned second place in the online category at the 20th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting, while our report on the lack of aid for IDPs in North Central Nigeria received a commendation at the awards.
At the CJID Excellence in Journalism Awards, we won two awards: first place in the health reporting category and first runner-up in the sexual and gender-based violence reporting category.
On the global stage, our report on how social media narratives fuel ethno-religious crises in Plateau State was shortlisted for the highly prestigious Fetisov Award, under the outstanding contribution to peace category.
The full scope of our impact is still unfolding, but the list below represents some of the significant results documented by our reporters:
1. Punished Without Guilt, Released Without Support
In September, HumAngle published the story of a young man who spent ten years in detention under the custody of Nigerian security forces following accusations of having links with a Boko Haram terrorist. After enduring immense hardship, he was found innocent and released through the terrorist deradicalisation programme also known as Operation Safe Corridor due to the time he spent with Boko Haram members in jail. But he struggled to rebuild his life after regaining freedom. The Kano State government also failed to fulfil its promise to support him and others.
However, after we published his story, a German-based Nigerian offered him financial support to start or strengthen his trade. The victim also said that after the story, the Kano State government, through the Hisbah Board, promised to fulfil its promise. As it stands, HumAngle’s report has become a catalyst in helping him rebuild his life after a decade in detention.
2. What Life Could Have Been For Leah Sharibu
HumAngle’s deeply human and creatively crafted feature to mark the 22nd birthday of Leah Sharibu, who was kidnapped by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) three months shy of her 15th birthday and has since remained in captivity. The story has travelled far beyond the newsroom, now being used as a teaching material at the University of Jos. Taye Obateru, a professor of journalism, media, and cultural studies, selected it as a model text for a final-year undergraduate class on advanced feature writing. Through this story, HumAngle is not only shaping public understanding of conflict and human suffering but also shaping the next generation of Nigerian journalists — inspiring them to pursue writing that is both empathetic and rigorous.
For the students, the lesson was transformative. Treasure Ajifa, a final-year mass communication student, told HumAngle: “During our Advanced Feature Writing class, we stumbled upon a challenging concept regarding the application of creativity in storytelling. As we wrestled with understanding it, our professor cited HumAngle’s story on what should have been Leah Sharibu’s 22nd birthday celebration as a quintessential example. It was a moment of revelation for the 200 students who sat listening to him. It left us aspiring to become better storytellers who could blend creative excellence with impactful reporting.”
3. The Unknown Flesh-Eating Disease in Nigeria’s Adamawa
After HumAngle’s feature on the mysterious flesh-eating disease affecting residents of Malabu in Adamawa State, North East Nigeria, authorities moved swiftly in response. A month after the report highlighted the rising number of cases and the community’s plea for urgent intervention, the government deployed vehicles to Malabu to evacuate all affected persons for proper medical care. Health officials also confirmed that a dedicated ward had been created at the Adamawa State Specialist Hospital, where victims are now receiving free treatment. According to Stella Samuel, a staff member at the hospital, this intervention was directly influenced by the attention the report generated, ensuring that dozens of vulnerable residents finally gained access to the care they desperately needed.
4. Malnutrition Is Affecting Displaced Mothers’ Ability to Breastfeed Newborns in North East Nigeria
HumAngle’s reporting on malnutrition and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Dalori settlement, Borno State, did far more than highlight the struggles of nursing mothers. It exposed a worsening mobility crisis that had quietly crippled the community since its relocation. For months, displaced families trekked long distances between Dalori and Maiduguri because transportation was scarce, expensive, and often completely unavailable. Menial workers could no longer reach the city for jobs, children missed school, and nursing mothers walked kilometres under the sun to fetch water or seek healthcare. The story laid bare how this mobility barrier was deepening hunger, unemployment, and vulnerability among people who were already uprooted from their homes.
Within days of the story’s publication, the Borno State government responded. Two buses were deployed to serve the Dalori–Maiduguri route, dedicated solely to helping displaced residents move safely and affordably between the settlement and the city. For a community that had been cut off both economically and physically, the impact was immediate. Movement to hospitals, markets, job centres, and schools suddenly became possible again.
The chairman of the settlement, Mohammed Bintube, acknowledged the development with relief and gratitude. “We are very happy that the government has responded to our transportation problems,” he said. “Our people used to trek from the village into the town before because transportation was scarce, and even when it was available, many could not afford it. We are happy we now have two dedicated buses that transport our people from Dalori Village to Maiduguri.”
5. The Deadly Consequences Of Blasphemy Allegations In Nigeria’s North
In Northern Nigeria, allegations of blasphemy can be extremely dangerous. Many people have lost their lives due to such accusations, often through what is commonly known as ‘jungle justice.’ In 2024, HumAngle published the stories of individuals accused of blasphemy, some of whom were detained without any attempt to ensure fairness or justice. But after the publication, two of them, Mallam Abba Gezawa and Mubarak Bala, regained their freedom. Mubarak Bala himself confirmed that HumAngle’s decision to spotlight his case played a key role in reviving his trial, which eventually gave him the right to reunite with his family. Other people detained for the same allegation, such as Sheikh Abduljabbar Kabara, have also received significant attention, with rights activists and lawyers promising to support their cases.
6. From Elephants to Warthogs: The Shadow Wildlife Trade Financing Boko Haram in Nigeria
This investigation has created a notable impact across policy, public discourse, and security analysis in 2025. As we uncovered how the disappearance of elephants in Sambisa Forest has shifted trafficking networks toward warthog tusks and created a new micro-economy exploited by Boko Haram, the story broadened national understanding of terror financing beyond ransom payments, cattle rustling, and informal taxation. It sparked widespread online conversation among journalists, conservationists, academics, and counterterrorism experts, who shared the report as a reference point for discussions on the environmental dimensions of insecurity in the Sahel. Civil society groups and wildlife-protection advocates cited the story to highlight enforcement gaps and the need for coordinated conservation efforts between Nigeria and Cameroon, while the revelation of unregulated forest corridors around Molai and Konduga renewed debate on patrol capacity and resource allocation.
7. Secrets, Silence, Survival: Inside a Nigerian Military Prison
This exposé broke through years of silence surrounding Wawa Barracks in Niger State, exposing a hidden world of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, and severe human rights abuses. Using rare eyewitness accounts, OSINT, and satellite imagery, the investigation revealed how civilians, minors, protesters, Boko Haram suspects, and mentally ill detainees were held together in degrading, overcrowded cells where torture, starvation, and deaths were common. The story ignited nationwide debate, spreading quickly across social media and prompting activists, lawyers, and affected families to demand answers.
When Omoyele Sowore, a rights activist in Nigeria, used images from the story to demand the release of everyone held in the prison on Nov. 8, it fueled even wider public outrage and revived conversations about military secrecy and abuses in Nigeria’s counterinsurgency operations. For many families across the South East, Middle Belt, and North East, the investigation confirmed the fate of loved ones who had disappeared for years. Within security and human rights circles, the report may now be seen as one of the consequential exposés of the year.
8. Nigerian Graduates Struggle as JAMB Withholds Admission Validation
This story sparked outrage, especially among the affected graduates, by exposing how a bureaucratic breakdown at JAMB trapped thousands of graduates, unable to proceed to the mandatory national service (NYSC) or begin their careers. The feature story exposed a system where students were punished for institutional failures beyond their control. After the story circulated, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), previously stalled, faced renewed public scrutiny and was compelled to push. Their efforts, driven in part by the visibility HumAngle created, directly contributed to the reopening of the affected JAMB portal, finally giving stranded graduates a pathway to resolve their cases.
“Hi, JAMB has opened my portal,” excited Loveth Adam told HumAngle in July.
9. What Does War Do to a Boy?
Ten years ago, Amir’s parents were arrested at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s northeastern region. He was three. Now, he is 13, out of the orphanage, and living with his grandmother. What has been the consequence of war for him? We reported his story in 2024. We also wrote to the army with the details and circumstances of his mother’s detention, asking for updates on the case. Though they did not respond, they went ahead to release her this year. We published her story here.
