THE United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced it would suspend emergency food and nutrition support for 1.3 million people in North-East Nigeria by the end of July due to a critical funding shortfall.
The WFP Nigeria Country Director, David Stevenson, said the agency urgently needed $130 million to sustain operations through 2025, warning that nearly 31 million Nigerians faced acute hunger, the highest number on record.
“This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis, it’s a growing threat to regional stability,” Stevenson said.
He warned that without aid, families could face extreme hunger, be forced to migrate, or risk recruitment by extremist groups.
The WFP’s food stocks have already been exhausted, with the final supplies distributed earlier in July, Stevenson stated, adding that over 150 nutrition clinics in Borno and Yobe states would also shut down, ending support for more than 300,000 children under two.
In the first half of 2025, WFP reached 1.3 million people and had planned to support an additional 720,000 in the coming months.
However, without immediate funding, these efforts have been halted.
The suspension comes amid rising violence and displacement, with 2.3 million people across the Lake Chad Basin already forced to flee their homes.
The ICIR reports that North-East Nigeria has endured over a decade of violent conflict, primarily driven by insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP.
This unrest has devastated livelihoods, forced mass displacement, and severely limited access to farmland and local markets, worsening hunger across the region.
Years of conflict have disrupted food systems, led to the closure of health facilities, and pushed communities into poverty. Many rely entirely on humanitarian assistance to survive.
A 2024 Cadre Harmonisé report shows that large parts of the region are facing severe food shortages, where families are skipping meals, selling off belongings to survive, or going days without eating.
In the hardest-hit areas, people are at high risk of malnutrition or even starvation, especially children and pregnant women. These conditions are classified as crisis or emergency levels, IPC Phases three and four, under international food security standards.
Security conditions have also made humanitarian access increasingly difficult. Aid workers face attacks, ambushes, and movement restrictions, particularly in remote rural areas.
Insecurity continues to limit both food delivery and agricultural recovery, compounding the crisis and placing millions at risk of extreme hunger.