Over One Mln Nigerians Risk Losing Emergency Food Assistance: WFP

ABUJA, Jan 23 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- More than one million people in northeast Nigeria would be cut off from emergency food and nutrition assistance within weeks unless urgent new funding is secured, the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday, reported Xinhua.

In a statement quoting David Stevenson, WFP's country director in Nigeria, the agency said that, for the first time in Africa's most populous country, its assistance would be limited to just 72,000 people because of funding shortfalls.

To sustain its operations in northeast Nigeria over the next six months, the agency urgently requires US$129 million, it added.

According to the statement, Nigeria is facing one of its worst hunger crises in years.

Nearly 35 million people are projected to experience acute and severe food insecurity during the 2026 lean season, according to the latest Cadre Harmonise, the equivalent of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) for West and Central Africa.

It added that an estimated 15,000 people in Nigeria's Borno State are at risk of catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5), one step away from famine and the most severe level recorded in a decade.

"Now is not the time to stop food assistance," Stevenson said. "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."

Since 2015, the WFP has provided food assistance in northeast Nigeria, reaching nearly two million women, men, and children in hard-hit areas each year.

Its operations combine emergency assistance with critical support aimed at helping communities withstand food shocks and reduce aid dependency over time.

However, renewed violence has devastated fragile rural communities, displacing families, destroying food reserves, and accelerating hunger and insecurity, the agency said.

In the past four months alone, more than 3.5 million people have been displaced, with 80 per cent in northern Nigeria. Malnutrition rates in several northern states have also worsened, reaching "critical" levels. 

--BERNAMA-XINHUA