The UN agency says it urgently requires $89 million over the next six months to sustain food and nutrition assistance while maintaining critical logistics support across conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria.
The warning, contained in a statement released on the agency's website on Thursday, follows the latest Cadre Harmonisé food security assessment, which shows that hunger levels have deteriorated more rapidly than earlier projected.
According to the assessment, more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected northern states are experiencing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity, representing an increase of nearly two million people compared to previous projections.
Describing the situation as increasingly alarming, the WFP noted that insecurity, once largely concentrated in parts of the Northeast, has spread into wider areas, disrupting farming activities, forcing families from their homes and limiting access for humanitarian workers.
“The recently completed Cadre Harmonisé analysis shows that more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria are experiencing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of hunger. This is an increase of almost two million since the last projections.”
The agency's Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Kinday Samba, said the changing nature of insecurity is worsening the humanitarian emergency.
“What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding. For years, insurgent attacks and violence were largely concentrated in parts of northeast Nigeria. 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,” Samba said.
He further warned that the consequences extend beyond food shortages, stressing that prolonged hunger fuels displacement, instability and exploitation.
“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,” he added.
The WFP cautioned that unless fresh funding is secured quickly, humanitarian operations could be further reduced, leaving millions without life-saving support and increasing the risks of worsening insecurity across northern Nigeria.
Borno remains hardest hit
According to the agency, Borno State continues to bear the brunt of the crisis as persistent insurgent attacks and shrinking humanitarian assistance worsen food insecurity.
The WFP estimates that more than three million people in the state are acutely food insecure. Of that figure, over 750,000 people are facing severe hunger, while more than 10,000 people are already experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger.
The agency also disclosed that insecurity has significantly hampered humanitarian access, with the number of inaccessible locations doubling. An additional 15 areas have now been classified as partially inaccessible due to attacks along humanitarian routes, rising insecurity and the proliferation of illegal checkpoints.
Although about 6.2 million people across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states require food assistance, the WFP says it currently has sufficient resources to support only 740,000 people—a sharp decline from the 1.3 million beneficiaries reached during the peak of the 2025 lean season.
The reduction in aid, according to the organisation, has already led to the suspension of food assistance in some displacement camps, contributing to rising cases of exploitation, gender-based violence and reports of vulnerable individuals joining armed groups in search of food or income.
The worsening hunger emergency comes against the backdrop of persistent insecurity, soaring inflation, displacement and climate-related shocks that continue to undermine agricultural production and household food access across northern Nigeria.
Humanitarian organisations have repeatedly warned that despite growing needs, funding shortages are forcing them to scale back life-saving interventions, leaving millions of vulnerable Nigerians at greater risk of hunger and malnutrition.
Earlier this year, the WFP disclosed that it spent $5 million (about N7.4 billion) on shock-response and social protection interventions in Nigeria. The agency had also warned in March that 10.4 million people across West and Central Africa could slide into acute food insecurity if the conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt global food supply chains and humanitarian operations.