Nigeria currently faces its worst food crisis on record, with 31 million people at risk of hunger, particularly in the insurgency-affected northeast
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced plans to shut down 150 of its 300 clinics in northeast Nigeria this month due to a lack of donor funding. This development threatens to cut off vital nutrition treatment for 300,000 children in a region already grappling with acute food insecurity.
“The immediate and most brutal effect will be on child nutrition,” said Chi Lael, WFP’s head of communications. The agency said it had not received new funding for its $130 million emergency appeal aimed at continuing support for 1.3 million people through 2025.
Nigeria currently faces its worst food crisis on record, with 31 million people at risk of hunger, particularly in the insurgency-affected northeast. The government has allocated just $326,000 this year to fight malnutrition in critical areas.
Lael warned, “The fear is that when food assistance ends, so will stability in northern Nigeria… the longer this is left unfunded, the harder it will be to pull the region back.”