The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that it will suspend food and nutritional assistance to 1.3 million people in northeastern Nigeria by the end of July 2025, after exhausting all available food supplies in the region. The decision comes amid severe funding shortages triggered by major cuts in international aid.
WFP Country Director for Nigeria, David Stevenson, emphasized that nearly 31 million Nigerians are now grappling with acute hunger—a record level of food insecurity in the country. More than 150 nutrition clinics supported by WFP in states like Borno and Yobe are set to close, depriving over 300,000 children under two of life-saving therapeutic feeding programmes.
The funding collapse follows the expulsion of critical support from the U.S.-based USAID, which previously accounted for about 45% of WFP’s northeast operations in 2024. With global contributions falling sharply, WFP says it urgently needs US $130 million to sustain its food and nutrition operations through the end of 2025.
WFP’s support has provided a lifeline to internally displaced persons, many driven from their homes by conflict linked to Boko Haram and ISWAP. However, worsening violence, floods, and economic hardship across the Lake Chad Basin have created a perfect storm of need. Stevenson warned that without aid, families will face harrowing choices: endure starvation, migrate, or resort to survival mechanisms including joining extremist groups.
UNICEF has similarly raised alarm, stating that more than 1 million malnourished children across Nigeria and neighbouring Ethiopia risk losing access to therapeutic food within two months, jeopardizing gains in child nutrition.
The cutbacks are intensifying food insecurity in rural farming communities, displaced persons camps, and IDP centres, especially in states like Adamawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Yobe. UN agencies have urged immediate responses from donor nations, humanitarian organizations, and the Nigerian government to prevent a surge in hunger-related mortality.
Absent sustained financial support, Nigeria’s north faces a humanitarian emergency—with destabilizing implications for regional peace and development.
