Nigeria among world’s 14 hunger-stricken spots – UN
●$29bn required to salvage situation
These are not the best of times for the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government’s claims that its economic reforms were yielding the right results forNigerians.
This is partly because the UN has in its latest bi-annual Hunger Hotspots Report warned that acute food insecurity was worsening in Nigeria and 15 other parts of the world.
It said this development was capable of putting millions at risk of famine between November 2025 and May 2026, just six months away.
That Africa’s most powerful country is listed alongside countries like war-torn Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen might not surprise many observers of Nigeria’s inexcusable worsening insecurity situation that has caused the deaths of many farmers and displacement of others forced off their lands by Islamists.
The joint report, ‘Hunger Hotspots: FAO/WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity’, was put together by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The report described Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, and Syria; as “very high concern” zones.
Haiti, Mali, Palestine, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen, the global body said, were facing an imminent risk of catastrophic hunger, classified under the highest phase (IPC/CH Phase 5).
According to the UN, conflict, economic shocks, and extreme weather remained the major drivers of hunger, while shrinking humanitarian funding threatened pushing several countries toward catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Similaly, Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, and the Rohingya refugee situation in Bangladesh, were also flagged as high-risk areas requiring urgent attention.
The report revealed that of the expected $29 billion required for emergency food assistance, only $10.5 billion had been received as of October 2025, compelling serious ration cuts and suspension of some nutrition and school feeding programmes.
FAO expressed concern that without immediate funding, crucial agricultural support, including seeds, livestock care, and early farming interventions, would not get to communities before the next farming season.
Said the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, “We must move from reacting to crises to preventing them. Investing in livelihoods, resilience, and social protection before hunger peaks will save lives and resources. Famine prevention is not just a moral duty, it is a smart investment in long-term peace and stability”, even as WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain warned that millions faced starvation if the world failed to act.
“Mothers are skipping meals so their children can eat. Families are exhausting what little they have left as they struggle to survive. We urgently need new funding and unimpeded access. A failure to act now will drive further instability, migration, and conflict,” she said.
Both agencies called for renewed global attention, sustained investments in resilience, and unrestricted humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas, emphasising that famine was predictable and preventable, and that only strong political will, adequate funding, and that collective action were needed to bring this about.
