WFP to Shut Down in Nigeria’s North East Amid Funding Constraints

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Thursday that it will be forced to suspend operations in the North East region of Nigeria by the end of July owing to a lack of funds. With the WFP’s food and nutrition stocks completely exhausted and the severe aid cuts from both the U.S and the U.K., this development puts over 1.3 million Nigerians, including more than 300,000 children, at immediate risk of a hunger crisis.

This development, while alarming, is not unexpected. In 2024, the United Nations warned that three northern states, Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, would face severe food insecurity, with Katsina emerging as a new hunger hotspot. Similarly, the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning reported last year that over 31.8 million Nigerians are suffering from acute food insecurity. To illustrate the scale, Margot van der Velden, WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, compared it to “the entire population of Texas going hungry.” Today, 18% of Nigerians are undernourished, and 31.5% children suffer from stunted growth, a stark indicator of long-term nutritional deficiencies.

The food crisis is made worse by escalating violence in the region. According to the WEP, extremist insurgencies continue to fuel mass displacement across northern Nigeria. It further stated that over 2.3 million people across the Lake Chad Basin have been forced to flee their homes, straining already limited resources and pushing communities to the brink.

In this context, food has become more than a necessity; it’s a weapon. Reports from outlets like HumAngle reveal that terrorist groups with heavy influence in the Northeast region use food to lure young boys into joining their groups. Per its report, these terrorist groups deliberately destroy crops, farming infrastructures, and empty stores to make life unbearable for the locals, depriving them of food. With the terrorist groups having access to the food supply, they take advantage of the undernourished children, tricking them into joining their camps and manipulating them by providing food and water. They also use this tactic to gain the support of marginalized communities by providing access to food. 

Although the proposed 826.5 billion naira allocation to agriculture in the 2025 national budget may suggest government attention, it falls significantly short of the $130 million the WEF says it urgently needs to sustain the emergency food and nutrition programmes over the next six months. On a larger scale, this crisis is set to impact the whole country. The region, which suffers deeply from insecurity attacks, is home to many farmers. With the imminent food insecurity crisis, climate change and a halt on USAID and U.K. aid cuts, the country is at the brink of a higher inflation in food prices, soaring insecurity, and a rise in malnutrition that the Nigerian Healthcare system cannot accommodate.