Nearly 35 million Nigerians are at risk of acute hunger in the coming months as the United Nations warns of one of the worst food insecurity crises in the country’s recent history.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Malick Fall, disclosed this at the launch of the 2026 Nigeria Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan in Abuja stating approximately 35 million people may face food insecurity during the upcoming lean season.
Among those at risk, an estimated 3 million children face life-threatening severe acute malnutrition, according to the most recent Cadre Harmonisé food security assessment that is equivalent to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification for West and Central Africa.
The hunger crisis is particularly severe in the North East where about 15,000 people in Borno State are projected to experience catastrophic hunger, classified as IPC Phase 5, just one step away from famine. This represents the worst levels of hunger recorded in Nigeria in a decade.
The United Nations attributes this dire situation to the collapse of global humanitarian funding budgets. The UN now aims to provide $516 million in lifesaving aid to 2.5 million people in 2026, a sharp reduction from 3.6 million people reached in 2025, which itself represented about half the coverage level of the previous year.
Funding shortages have forced the World Food Programme to cut support for more than 300,000 children who depended on its nutrition programs when its resources ran out in December 2025. The WFP urgently requires USD 129 million to sustain operations in north-east Nigeria over the next six months or faces full shutdown in the region.
Mohamed Malick Fall said the UN had no choice but to focus on the most lifesaving interventions given the dramatic drop in available funding, meaning millions of vulnerable Nigerians will receive no international humanitarian support despite facing acute need.
Civilians in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states continue to live in fear amid rising insecurity from extremist groups whose attacks are surging and pushing food out of reach for millions of families. The UN says households are displaced, farms are destroyed and markets are inaccessible.
The Nigerian government has pledged to strengthen food security by focusing on boosting food production, supporting local farmers, expanding nutrition programs especially for children and pregnant women, and strengthening social protection systems beyond emergency relief.
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