UN warns of 'catastrophic' hunger crisis in Nigeria as food aid funding runs out

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday that more than a million people in northeastern Nigeria could lose access to emergency food and nutrition aid within weeks unless funding is secured, as violence and hunger surge in the region.

The food agency of the United Nations said in a statement it will sharply scale back assistance, limiting it to only 72,000 people in February, down from 1.3 million assisted during last year’s lean season, which runs from May to October.

According to WFP, 35 million people are likely to experience severe hunger in Nigeria this year, the highest figure on the continent and the largest recorded since the agency began collecting data in the country.

WFP has provided food assistance in northeastern Nigeria since 2015, reaching nearly two million people a year in hard-hit areas.

“Despite generous contributions that sustained WFP’s life-saving aid to the most vulnerable in recent months, those limited resources have now been exhausted,” the agency's statement on Thursday read.

“This will lead to catastrophic humanitarian, security and economic consequences for the most vulnerable people who have been forced to flee their homes in search of food and shelter,” David Stevenson, WFP’s Nigeria Country Director, said.

Renewed violence in Nigeria has displaced around 3.5 million people in recent months, destroyed food supplies, and worsened malnutrition to critical levels in several northern states. Widespread attacks by various armed groups have deterred farmers from using their land, officials said.

Last week, gunmen abducted more than 150 worshippers in simultaneous attacks on three separate churches in northwest Nigeria.

The West African country also has been hard hit by a massive scaling down of U.N. food assistance following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to gut the United States Agency for International Development.

Nigeria is one of several countries in the region where the cut to USAID has deepened the food crisis. In July, WFP suspended food assistance across West and Central Africa.