By Deborah Musa
The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that escalating conflict and dwindling humanitarian funding are pushing northern Nigeria into its worst hunger crisis in nearly a decade, with millions of people facing severe food insecurity.
The agency, in a statement released on Thursday, said the food security situation had deteriorated faster than previously projected as renewed attacks across northern Nigeria continued to displace communities, restrict humanitarian access and cut people off from food assistance.
According to the recently completed Cadre Harmonisé analysis, more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria are experiencing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger, representing an increase of almost two million people since the previous projections.
The report showed that Borno State remained the hardest hit, with more than three million people acutely food insecure following intensified insurgent attacks and reductions in food assistance.
The statement added that more than 750,000 people in the state were experiencing severe hunger conditions, while over 10,000 people were facing catastrophic hunger.
WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Kinday Samba, said the growing geographical spread of insecurity was worsening the humanitarian situation.
“What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding. For years, insurgent attacks and violence were largely concentrated in parts of northeast Nigeria.
“Today, they are spreading across a much wider area and forcing people from farmland, driving displacement and restricting humanitarian access, meaning hunger is quick to follow,” Samba said.
The organisation said worsening insecurity, access constraints and severe funding shortages had significantly reduced its ability to deliver life-saving assistance to vulnerable populations.
According to WFP, the number of inaccessible locations has doubled, with 15 additional areas now considered partially inaccessible to frontline humanitarian workers.
It noted that attacks and illegal checkpoints along major transport routes were disrupting the movement of relief supplies, leaving air transport as the only viable option in many locations.
The agency further disclosed that although the number of food-insecure people across the three northeastern states had risen to 6.2 million, it currently had resources to assist only 740,000 people, leaving about 5.5 million people, particularly children, without life-saving food and nutrition support.
It noted that this marked a sharp decline from the 1.3 million people it was able to assist during the peak of the 2025 lean season.
WFP expressed concern that the suspension of food assistance in some communities due to funding shortages was forcing vulnerable households to adopt desperate survival strategies.
The agency said reports from affected communities indicated that some individuals were joining armed groups in search of food or income, highlighting the growing security risks associated with worsening hunger.
It also warned that the suspension of food assistance in some displacement camps had triggered an alarming increase in exploitation and gender-based violence, with women and children bearing the greatest burden.
“When people lose access to food, the risks of displacement, exploitation and instability increase. Yet resources are at their lowest at the time they are needed most,” Samba said.
To sustain food and nutrition assistance as well as critical logistics operations across northern Nigeria, WFP said it urgently requires $89m over the next six months.
The agency warned that without immediate financial support, hunger would deepen further, more people would be displaced, and instability would continue to spread across the region.
The Cadre Harmonisé update also indicated that the overall number of food-insecure people across Nigeria has risen to 36.2 million, reflecting the growing scale of the country’s humanitarian and food security challenges.
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