The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said that it will be forced to suspend all emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in northeast Nigeria at the end of July.
A Wednesday statement by the UN said the decision was due to critical funding shortfalls, which come at a time of escalating violence and record levels of hunger in the country.
“WFP’s food and nutrition stocks have been completely exhausted. The organisation’s last supplies left warehouses in early July, and life-saving assistance will end after the current round of distributions is completed,” the statement noted in part.
It said that without immediate funding, millions of vulnerable people will face impossible choices such as enduring increasingly severe hunger, migration, or possibly risking exploitation by extremist groups in the region.
“Nearly 31 million people in Nigeria are now facing acute hunger, a record number.
“At the same time, WFP’s operations in northeast Nigeria will collapse without immediate, sustained funding. This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis; it’s a growing threat to regional stability, as families pushed beyond their limits are left with nowhere to turn,” said David Stevenson, WFP Country Director for Nigeria.
The UN noted that children will be among the worst affected if vital aid ends, saying that more than 150 WFP-supported nutrition clinics in Borno and Yobe states will close, ending potentially life-saving treatment for more than 300,000 children under two and placing them at increased risk of wasting.