Hunger alert: 17 million northern Nigerians face acute hunger – UN
More than 17 million people across conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria are now facing acute hunger, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. Escalating violence, mass displacement, and shrinking humanitarian aid are pushing the region toward its worst food security crisis in nearly a decade.
The latest Cadre Harmonisé food security analysis shows that over 17 million people in nine northern states are experiencing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of food insecurity. That’s an increase of nearly two million people since the last assessment, Daily Independent reports.
According to the WFP, the crisis reflects a combination of persistent conflict, declining humanitarian access, and severe funding shortfalls that are limiting lifesaving assistance to vulnerable populations.
Borno State remains the epicentre
More than three million people in Borno are acutely food insecure, with over 750,000 facing severe hunger. At least 10,000 people are now experiencing catastrophic hunger — the highest level of food insecurity. While a small proportion of those affected, the WFP described the figure as a serious warning of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.
WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Kinday Samba, said the organisation is increasingly concerned by the crisis’s widening geographic spread. Insurgent attacks, once largely confined to the North-East, are now displacing farming communities across wider areas and restricting humanitarian access.
“Hunger inevitably follows when insecurity prevents people from cultivating crops, earning incomes and receiving humanitarian support,” Samba said.
Mounting logistical and funding challenges
Humanitarian operations are facing growing constraints. The number of inaccessible locations has doubled, with 15 additional areas now classified as partially inaccessible to frontline workers. Attacks on major transport routes and illegal checkpoints are disrupting relief supply chains, leaving air transport as the only viable option for some isolated communities.
Funding shortages have compounded the crisis. While the number of food-insecure people across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states has risen to 6.2 million, WFP currently has resources to assist only about 740,000. Approximately 5.5 million vulnerable people — many of them children — are now without lifesaving food and nutrition support. That’s down sharply from the 1.3 million people assisted during the 2025 lean season.
The WFP warned that suspending food assistance is forcing households into desperate survival strategies. Some individuals are reportedly joining armed groups in search of food or income. The agency also raised concerns over rising exploitation and gender-based violence following the suspension of food distributions in some displacement camps, 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 when they are needed most,” Samba said.
Urgent funding needed
To avert a deeper humanitarian emergency, WFP says it urgently needs $89 million over the next six months to sustain food and nutrition assistance, maintain essential logistics, and prevent further deterioration across northern Nigeria.
Without immediate financial support, the agency warned, hunger, displacement and insecurity could intensify — with far-reaching consequences for affected communities and the wider region.
