The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it may suspend emergency food and nutrition support for over 1.3 million people in North-East Nigeria by the end of July.
The agency blamed the looming cut on a severe funding shortfall.
WFP’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Margot van der Velden, raised the alarm during a briefing on Nigeria’s humanitarian crisis on Wednesday.
She revealed that the agency urgently needs $130 million to sustain life-saving assistance for the next six months.
“In Nigeria today, 31 million people are facing acute food insecurity and in need of life-saving help,” van der Velden said. “To put this in perspective, this is equivalent to the entire population of Texas going hungry.”
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According to her, WFP had managed to keep hunger under control in northern Nigeria during the first half of 2025, but donor contributions have now dried up. The last stocks were dispatched in early July.
“At the beginning of August, we will face the heartbreaking reality of telling families they will no longer receive food—not because the need has ended, but because the resources are gone,” she said.
The UN official warned that 1.3 million people, including 300,000 infants, will lose access to food aid and 150 nutrition clinics will shut down, leaving thousands of malnourished children untreated.
She added that the crisis could force many into desperate survival strategies, including migration and recruitment by insurgent groups.
Despite the challenges, van der Velden commended the Nigerian government, saying it remains the largest financier of the humanitarian response in the region. But she stressed that the scale of the crisis demands urgent international support.
