The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report on Thursday that it urgently needs USD $128 million to sustain its operations in Nigeria from January 2025 to June 2026, after warning that more than a million people in northeastern Nigeria could lose access to emergency food and nutrition aid within weeks as violence surges across the nation.

The WFP will face food and cash shortfalls in January and February 2026, placing emergency food and nutrition activities at risk. The program will be forced to suspend operations in late February 2026 if funding is not urgently mobilized, which would leave millions of people without food and basic life necessities.

The WFP specifically emphasized the humanitarian consequences of the inability to secure financial support, stating, “Without urgent funding, millions will be left without vital support, risking more instability and further deepening a severe hunger crisis.” Notably, 35 million people in Nigeria are facing acute food insecurity; 37 percent of the population lives below the poverty line; and 2.3 million Nigerian citizens have been displaced by violence, causing food insecurity in the northeast parts of the country.

David Stevenson, WFP’s Nigeria country director, warned about “catastrophic humanitarian, security, and economic consequences for the most vulnerable people who have been forced to flee their homes in search of food and shelter.” The program emphasized that violence from militant groups across northern Nigeria has exacerbated the existing food and insecurity crisis, threatening rural communities.

There is particular concern for Borno state, which stands at the epicenter of Nigeria’s security crisis. The WFP stated that there are “roughly 15,000 people in Borno state who risk falling into catastrophic hunger, which is one step away from famine,” and that “[t]hese are the worst levels of hunger recorded in a decade.”

The WFP has previously stated that it “is committed to fostering locally led solutions to challenges in domestic food systems as opportunities for resilience building in Nigeria.” The program has established a community-led farmer service center in Wammako, Sokoto state, for instance. It has also helped “enable the large-scale fortification of rice in Lagos and Kebbi states” in order to “address micronutrient deficiency” within the country.