WFP Warns Nigeria Faces Worst Hunger Crisis in Years

(Hunger crisis. Photo by Daily Post)

The United Nations agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), last week sounded the alarm over an impending food crisis in northern Nigeria, warning that the situation could worsen if the government fails to make a concerted effort to bring it under control.

The agency cautioned that escalating conflict combined with dwindling humanitarian funding was pushing northern Nigeria toward its worst hunger crisis in nearly a decade, with millions of people facing severe and acute food insecurity.

It called for immediate financial support, warning that without it, hunger would deepen further, more people would be displaced, and instability would continue spreading across the region.

The warning, contained in a statement from the agency, confirmed the reality on the ground that Nigerians, particularly those in the north, are living under mounting tension as economic hardship worsens by the day.

Many Nigerians attribute the situation to deteriorating insecurity, which has prevented farmers from accessing their farmlands, resulting in food shortages not just in the north but across the country.

According to the WFP, the food security situation had deteriorated faster than earlier projected, following renewed att@cks across northern Nigeria that have continued to displace communities, restrict humanitarian access and cut people off from food assistance.

It will be recalled that in March 2024, the WFP issued a similar alert, noting at the time that inflation had exceeded 33 per cent year-on-year, further eroding the already weak purchasing power of households in a country where 38 per cent of citizens live below the poverty line.

Similarly, both the World Bank and the United Nations have, at different points, raised concerns over the looming hunger crisis.

In 2021, the World Bank noted that inflation had pushed about seven million Nigerians into poverty in 2020, stressing that the country's economic growth was being held back by food inflation, heightened insecurity, unemployment and stalled reforms.

It observed that persistent inflationary pressure was driven largely by rising food prices, with the nation's inflation rate climbing steadily throughout 2020 before reaching a four-year high in March 2021.

Lead economist for Nigeria and co-author of the report, Marco Hernandez, explained at the time that inflation, particularly in food prices, was worsening poverty and food insecurity across the country.

Also in 2022, the United Nations reported that 70 per cent of Nigerians in the North-West geopolitical zone were living below the poverty line, lamenting the scale of the nutrition crisis affecting the region.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who disclosed this, said he had visited Katsina to gain a clearer understanding of the state's nutrition and food security situation, describing the nutrition crisis affecting children in the region as staggering and deeply troubling.

He said it was distressing to witness children suffering from a lack of adequate food, adding that urgent action was needed to ease the plight of those affected.

He noted, however, that insecurity, poverty and limited awareness were the key drivers of the nutrition crisis afflicting children in Katsina and the wider North-West region.

In its latest report, the WFP disclosed that over 17 million people across nine conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria are now experiencing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger an increase of nearly two million people compared to earlier projections.

The report identified Borno State as the hardest hit, with more than three million people acutely food insecure following intensified ins£rgent att@cks and reduced food assistance.

It added that over 750,000 people in the state were experiencing severe hunger conditions, while more than 10,000 were facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Kinday Samba, said the expanding geographical reach of insecurity was worsening the humanitarian crisis.

"What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding. For years, ins£rgent att@cks 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," he said.

The organisation explained that worsening insecurity, restricted access and severe funding shortfalls had significantly weakened its ability to deliver life-saving assistance to vulnerable populations, noting that the number of inaccessible locations had doubled, with 15 additional areas now considered partially inaccessible to frontline humanitarian workers.

It stressed that att@cks and illegal checkpoints along major transport routes were disrupting the movement of relief supplies, leaving air transport as the only viable option in many areas.

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 has the resources to assist only 740,000 people, leaving about 5.5 million people many of them 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.

The WFP expressed concern that the suspension of food assistance in some communities due to funding shortfalls was forcing vulnerable households into desperate survival strategies.

It said reports from affected communities indicated that some individuals were joining armed groups in search of food or income, underscoring the growing security risks tied to worsening hunger.

The agency also warned that the suspension of food assistance in some displacement camps had led to an alarming rise in exploitation and gender-based violence, with women and children bearing the heaviest 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, the WFP said it urgently requires $89 million over the next six months, warning that without immediate financial support, hunger would deepen further, displacement would rise, and instability would continue to spread across the region.

The report also revealed that the overall number of food-insecure people across Nigeria had climbed to 36.2 million, underscoring the growing scale of the country's humanitarian and food security challenges.

This latest report has once again drawn attention to a reality that the government and its agencies appear reluctant to confront, along with the urgency of the intervention required.

Reactions have continued to trail the report, with some observers insisting that even without the WFP's findings, Nigerians across the country not just in the north are already aware that acute hunger is looming.

Those who hold this view argue that once food producers are no longer able to produce, a shortage is inevitable, and when that happens, the result is acute hunger, malnutrition, disease and, ultimately, death.

Others have expressed anger that even though the government has failed to provide security to enable farmers to return to their farms, it has also failed to provide security for agencies seeking to deliver food aid.

Still others are angered that what dominates headlines daily is the mismanagement and squandering of billions and trillions of naira by government officials, even as ordinary people die of hunger.

Among those who believe insecurity is the primary driver of the current crisis is Dr Pogu Bitrus, president of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF).

He argued that the government needs to take decisive action against b@nditry, kidn@pping and all forms of criminality in order to create an environment where farmers can return to their farms and produce enough food to feed the nation.

He told an online news platform that the government also needs to reassess certain economic policies that appear to have worsened the hardship facing citizens.

"If possible, see how such policies could be touched to bring about improvement in the citizens' economic fortunes, and by extension, their standard of living," he stated.

Policy analyst James Adedayo similarly questioned why the government has been unable to restore order across the country.

"How can anybody convince me that the Federal Government is not capable of securing Nigeria so much that our farmers cannot go to the farm.

Look, the government should not play politics with people's lives. We are talking about people's existence.

Why can't the government flush out these b@ndits and t3rrorists once and for all, and let Nigerians return to their normal lives? Enough of all this nonsense.

We can feed ourselves. Our farmers are capable of feeding the nation but they must be allowed to do that without fear of being k!lled or kidn@pped," he stated.

He stressed that the government must create an enabling environment for farmers to carry out their work without fear of att@ck, kidn@pping or d£ath at the hands of b@ndits and t3rrorists.

He also questioned why the government has not assisted agencies with the funds needed to procure food for Nigerians facing acute and severe hunger.

"And why should agencies like the WFP not have access to hunger-prone areas in the North due to insecurity and the government is keeping quiet? I think the government needs to do more than issuing press statements.

It needs to take the bull by the horn. It needs to protect Nigerians at all costs," he added.

He further expressed concern over the daily rise in food prices, warning that if the government fails to take urgent action, the crisis could spread to other parts of the country.

"It is when farmers go to farm that they can produce food. A situation where b@ndits, kidn@ppers, herdsmen and Boko Haram Islamist ins£rgents have driven farmers away from the farms, without any reaction from any quarter, what do you expect? Do you expect manna to fall from heaven in this 21 century? No, that won't happen.

Acute food shortage with its attendant hunger and starvation will be the outcome," he added.

Adekunle Ajibade, a retired teacher, also weighing in on the development, argued that since the government has failed to provide security for farmer a situation that has led to acute food shortages in parts of the North it should instead support agencies seeking to help.

"Such assistance should be in the form of finance and security.

It should be able to earmark funds for food importation to areas that are facing acute hunger. Secondly, the government must also be able to provide security for such agencies to be able to distribute the food items to those that need them.

A situation where those who want to assist with food and other materials are prevented from reaching the people in need by b@ndits, t3rrorists and other criminal gangs, doesn't speak good about the government. All this nonsense must stop," he warned.

In his own contribution, real estate agent Rowland Adebayo lamented the situation many Nigerians currently find themselves in.

He wondered why the government would allow such an existential matter as food to become a source of crisis, noting that food ranks third in the hierarchy of human needs, after air and water.

"So, why should any responsible government play politics with such an important part of human existence? That's why some of us believe that this government needs to be changed.

Let us try another set of leaders.

For God's sake, food should not be a problem to a country like Nigeria that is blessed with abundant human and mineral resources as well as wonderful weather conditions.

Why should the government allow a few hoodlums who call themselves b@ndits, t3rrorists or whatever, to be running riot across Nigeria and preventing our farmers from going to do their farm work?

How did we descend to this level? I believe the cause of all these problems is politics and it is time Nigerians put aside politics of religion and ethnicity and look for a leader with competence and character to bring us out of this dead wood," he submitted.