Conflict, funding cuts, and worsening access have pushed northern Nigeria into its worst hunger crisis in nearly a decade, with over 17 million people now facing acute food insecurity, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
The latest Cadre Harmonisé analysis shows more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected northern states are at crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of hunger. That is an increase of nearly 2 million people from the previous assessment.
Borno State is the most affected. Renewed insurgent attacks and suspended food aid have left over 3 million people acutely food insecure.
Of them, 750,000 face severe hunger and 10,000+ are in catastrophic hunger — the highest level, often linked to famine-like conditions.
“What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding,” said WFP’s Kinday Samba.
“For years, insurgent attacks were largely concentrated in the Northeast. 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.”
WFP said the number of locations partially inaccessible to aid workers has doubled in recent months. An additional 15 areas are now difficult to reach due to insecurity.
Attacks and illegal checkpoints are disrupting relief convoys. In several locations, air transport is now the only option.
Funding shortages are compounding the crisis. Across the three insurgency-ravaged Northeast states, 6.2 million people are food insecure. But WFP currently has resources for only 740,000 people.
That leaves about 5.5 million people, many of them women and children, without food and nutrition support. This is down sharply from the 1.3 million WFP assisted during the peak of the 2025 lean season.
The agency said aid suspensions in displacement camps are pushing families toward dangerous coping strategies, including joining armed groups for food or income. It also flagged rising exploitation and gender-based violence against women and children.
“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.
The report said Nigeria’s food crisis extends beyond the North. 36.2 million people nationwide are now food insecure, driven by insecurity, inflation, climate shocks, and economic pressure.
WFP warned that without urgent action, hunger, displacement, and instability could worsen in northern Nigeria and spill into neighbouring countries.
To sustain emergency food, nutrition, and logistics for the next six months, WFP says it urgently needs $89 million in additional funding.
