WFP warning highlights soaring hunger in northern Nigeria as conflict and inflation push thousands toward famine

Abuja, Nigeria, 25 November 2025 – A WFP warning issued on Tuesday revealed that resurgent terrorist attacks and deepening instability in northern Nigeria have pushed hunger to unprecedented levels, with thousands now facing what the United Nations agency described as “famine-like conditions.”

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The World Food Programme said nearly 35 million people in northern Nigeria are projected to experience severe food insecurity during the 2026 lean season, which runs from May to September.

The agency noted that Borno State, the heart of the jihadist conflict, is approaching a breaking point, with around 15,000 people expected to reach catastrophic hunger levels.

The 16-year insurgency in the northeast has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced about two million, destabilising communities and spilling violence into neighbouring countries.

The crisis has been compounded by widening insecurity across central and northwestern Nigeria, where armed gangs raid rural settlements, kidnap civilians and overwhelm overstretched security forces.

In the past week, the country suffered three major abductions: more than 300 pupils and teachers taken from a Catholic school in Niger State, 25 Muslim schoolgirls seized in Kebbi State, and 38 worshippers kidnapped during a livestreamed church service in Kwara State.

The renewed wave of violence has tightened the grip of fear across regions already battling severe food shortages.

The WFP said the lean season typically leaves rural families with minimal food reserves, but this year’s pressures have been intensified by soaring inflation linked to Nigeria’s economic crisis.

The spiralling cost of basic goods has pushed even farming households toward the brink, as many can no longer afford to buy staple foods between planting and harvest.

Funding cuts have worsened the situation. The agency, whose largest donor is the United States, has faced steep reductions after Washington scaled back foreign aid under President Donald Trump. Several European donors have also trimmed humanitarian budgets.

As a result, the WFP began reducing nutrition support programmes in July, closing 150 of its 500 nutrition centres in the northeast and leaving more than 300,000 children at risk. Malnutrition levels subsequently rose from “serious” to “critical” in the third quarter of the year.

Jihadist activity has intensified, with the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims claiming its first attack in Nigeria late last month.

Communities already strained by relentless assaults now face what WFP Nigeria representative David Stevenson described as a “severe pressure cooker” of insecurity and economic hardship. He warned that families were being pushed “closer to the edge” as needs grow.

Nigeria’s broader economic turmoil has deepened the crisis. President Bola Tinubu’s reforms, applauded internationally for their long-term intentions, have sharply increased the cost of living, eroding household purchasing power and weakening coping mechanisms across the country.

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For many northern communities, the convergence of conflict, inflation and funding shortfalls has created a potent and perilous emergency that is rapidly escalating.