1m Nigerians Risk Being Cut Off From Emergency Food Assistance, UN Warns

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has raised the alarm that more than one million people in North-East Nigeria risked being cut off from emergency food and nutrition assistance within weeks unless urgent new funding was received.

The WFP, in a statement issued on Thursday, said as a result of this development, and for the first time in Nigeria, WFP’s assistance will be limited to only 72,000 people.

Nigeria is facing one of the worst hunger crises in recent times. Nearly 35 million people were projected to experience acute and severe food insecurity during the 2026 lean season, according to the most recent Cadre Harmonisé – the equivalent of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) for West and Central Africa. Of these, an estimated 15,000 people in Borno State are at risk of catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) – one step away from famine. It’s the worst level of hunger recorded in a decade.

David Stevenson, WFP’s Nigeria Country Director, said “now is not the time to stop food assistance,” adding that “this will lead to catastrophic humanitarian, security and economic consequences for the most vulnerable people who have been forced to flee their homes in search of food and shelter. Humanitarian solutions are still possible and are one of the last stabilizing forces preventing mass displacement and regional spillover.”

WFP has been providing food assistance in North-East Nigeria since 2015, reaching nearly two million women, men, and children in hard-hit areas each year. WFP’s work in Nigeria combines emergency assistance with critical support to help communities withstand food shocks and reduce aid dependency over time. WFP’s home-grown solutions support the local economy by procuring assistance domestically to strengthen value chains and promote self-sufficiency.

However, renewed violence has devastated fragile rural communities, displacing families, destroying food reserves, and accelerating alarming levels of hunger and insecurity. In the past four months alone, 3.5 million people were forced to flee their homes with 80 per cent of these located in the country’s North.

Malnutrition rates across several northern states have worsened too, reaching ‘critical’ levels, the statement said.

Despite generous contributions that sustained WFP’s life-saving aid to the most vulnerable in recent months, those limited resources have now been exhausted.

“If WFP cannot continue supporting the displaced populations in camps, they will leave the sites in a desperate attempt to survive. They will try to migrate, or they may join insurgent groups to feed themselves and their families,” Stevenson said.

“WFP urgently requires USD129 million to sustain its operations in northeast Nigeria over the next six months. Without this funding, the organization faces the risk of a full operational shutdown in the region,” the statement added.

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.