The United Nations (UN), through its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nigeria, has warned that about 35 million Nigerians are at risk of acute hunger this year, including 3 million children facing severe malnutrition, following the collapse of global aid budgets.
The UN disclosed this on Thursday, January 22, 2026, at the launch of the 2026 humanitarian plan in Abuja. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mohamed Malick Fall said the long dominant, foreign led aid model in Nigeria is no longer sustainable and that Nigeria’s needs have grown.
Conditions in the conflict hit northeast are dire, Fall said, with civilians in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states facing rising violence. A surge in suicide bombings and widespread attacks killed more than 4,000 people in the first eight months of 2025, matching the toll for all of 2023, he said.
The UN can only aim to deliver $516 million to provide lifesaving aid to 2.5 million people this year, down from 3.6 million in 2025, which in turn was about half the previous year’s level.
These are not statistics. These numbers represent lives, futures and Nigerians, Fall said. He also said the UN had no choice but to focus on the most lifesaving interventions given the drop in available funding.
Shortfalls last year led the World Food Programme (WFP) to also warn that millions could go hungry in Nigeria as its resources ran out in December and it was forced to cut support for more than 300,000 children.
Fall said Nigeria was showing growing national ownership of the crisis response in recent months through measures such as local funding for lean season food support and early warning action on flooding.
The figure of 35 million people at risk represents the highest number on the continent and the largest since the agency began recording data in Nigeria. The projection comes from the latest Cadre Harmonisé, a regional food security analysis that classifies the severity of hunger, which found that nearly 35 million people are projected to face severe food insecurity during the 2026 lean season.
Northern Nigeria is experiencing the most severe hunger crisis in a decade, with rural farming communities the hardest hit. Nearly six million people in the north are projected to face crisis levels of hunger or worse during the 2026 lean season, which runs from June to August, in the conflict zones of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
This includes some 15,000 people in Borno State who are expected to confront catastrophic hunger, reaching Phase 5 famine like conditions. Phase 5 is the highest classification of food insecurity, similar to what has been seen in some parts of Gaza and Sudan.
Children are at greatest risk across Borno, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara, where malnutrition rates are highest. The dire situation has been compounded by funding shortfalls that diminish WFP’s ability to provide lifesaving assistance.
In the northeast, where nearly one million people depend on WFP’s food and nutrition assistance, WFP was forced to scale down nutrition programmes in July 2025, affecting more than 300,000 children. The agency closed 150 WFP supported nutrition clinics in Borno and Yobe states, home to some of the highest levels of hunger and malnutrition.
Widespread attacks by various armed groups have deterred farmers from using their land, officials said. In October 2025, al Qaeda (al Qaida) affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) took responsibility for its first attack in Nigeria, making the group the latest entrant in a pool of armed groups operating in the country.
Meanwhile, the insurgent group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) is reportedly pursuing its expansion across the Sahel. Other recent incidents include the killing of a brigadier soldier in the northeast and attacks on public schools in the north, where several teachers and hundreds of schoolchildren were kidnapped.
Attacks by insurgent groups in Nigeria have intensified throughout 2025. Renewed violence has displaced around 3.5 million people in recent months, destroyed food supplies, and worsened malnutrition to critical levels in several northern states.
Conflict and insecurity, rising inflation and the impact of the climate crisis continue to drive hunger in Nigeria. Conflict in the northeast has displaced 2.3 million people and left nearly 6 million facing acute food insecurity and limited access to assistance.
Nigeria is subject to periodic droughts and floods. This has had an adverse impact on agricultural output and increased the vulnerability of populations, especially in rural areas. Insurgent activities have added pressure to a fragile resource environment, deepened insecurity, hampered development, and heightened the food and nutrition insecurity of vulnerable women and children.
Despite generous contributions that sustained WFP’s lifesaving aid to the most vulnerable in recent months, those limited resources have now been exhausted. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cut ceased funding to the WFP, which said it will run out of resources for emergency food and nutrition assistance in December 2025.
Nigeria is one of several countries in the region where the cut has deepened the food crisis. In July 2025, the agency suspended food assistance across West and Central Africa.
Without confirmed funding, millions will be left without support in 2026, fueling instability and deepening a crisis that the world cannot afford to ignore, WFP said in a statement.
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.
WFP has provided food assistance in northeastern Nigeria since 2015, reaching nearly two million people a year in hard hit areas. The agency has held hunger at bay during the first half of 2025, particularly in conflict affected areas in the north, reaching more than 1.3 million people with lifesaving food and nutrition assistance.
The suspension of food aid could further destabilize the region as people are faced with impossible choices including enduring hunger, fleeing their homes or risking exploitation by extremist groups.
WFP’s assistance in northern Nigeria has reduced malnutrition admissions among children in areas it supports. However, lack of funding has led to the closure of nutrition clinics, leaving 300,000 children at risk of wasting, which refers to low weight for height.
