Expanding conflict drives record hunger in northern Nigeria: WFP

Hunger across Nigeria's conflict-hit north is at levels not seen in a decade as violence spreads and aid shrinks, the UN's World Food Programme warned Thursday, with more than 17 million people experiencing "crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels" of hunger.

The country has been battling a jihadist insurgency centred in the northeast since 2009, with a resurgence in violence since 2025.

Jihadists have also been expanding into the northwest, which is already facing a separate, overlapping crisis from armed "bandit" gangs.

"What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding," WFP regional director for west and central Africa, Kinday Samba, said in a statement, noting the spread of violence "across a much wider area and forcing people from farmland, driving displacement and restricting humanitarian access".

Aid cuts under US President Donald Trump and other western countries have hit some of Nigeria's poorest households in recent years.

At the same time, the International Monetary Fund reported last month that poverty has risen under President Bola Tinubu, who has embarked on a raft of economic reforms supported by economists but which have also driven up prices.

As conflict in the country's troubled north has expanded, so has the number of areas too dangerous for WFP to operate in, it said.

"The number of inaccessible locations has doubled: a further 15 areas are now considered partially inaccessible for WFP's frontline staff," it said,

Government control is scanty outside urban centres, leaving swathes of rural areas prone to attacks from armed groups.

'Food security crisis worsening'

"Nigeria's food security crisis is worsening faster than previously anticipated," it said. "Conflict is driving hunger in some northern states, particularly the northeast, to levels not seen in almost a decade".

In Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadist conflict, more than three million people are "acutely food insecure", including 10,000 people facing "catastrophic hunger".

But WFP's footprint is shrinking amid a donor shortfall, it said.

At the height of 2025 "lean season", when the previous year's foodstocks are running low but the current year's crops aren't ready for harvest, the agency delivered food and nutrition aid to 1.3 million people.

Amid "extreme funding shortfalls", it has projected it will reach slightly over half that number this year.

The total number of food insecure people in north eastern Nigeria has expanded to 6.2 million, yet WFP is only able to feed 740,000 of them "leaving 5.5 million people - particularly children" without food.

WFP said it was "deeply concerned" that the suspension of food aid was pushing people to adopt "desperate coping" measures.

"Communities have reported cases of individuals joining armed groups in search of food or income, underlining the risks created when hunger deepens and people run out of options," it said.