Northern Nigeria to face unprecedented hunger in 2026, report says

Nigeria is expected to see the worst levels of food insecurity in Africa during 2026, according to a World Food Programme (WFP) report released on November 25.

Reported by AP News, the UN’s food agency has projected that up to 35 million people in Nigeria could face severe hunger by 2026, which is the largest number since the organisation began tracking data in the country.

This isn’t the first warning of Nigeria facing a hunger crisis. On October 21, aid organisations raised the alarm about the ongoing crisis in the country.

In 2024 alone, around 150 clinics were closed by the WFP, where children were being treated for malnutrition due to the decline of aid and funding Nigeria was receiving from the US. As a result, camps, including Bama in Borno State, can only help the most vulnerable.

Throughout 2026, the WFP has also predicted that around 15,000 people in Borno State, the main centre of Nigeria’s security crisis, will experience a massive hunger crisis, including famine conditions.

Due to the severity of the crisis, Borno State will now be classified as Phase 5, the agency’s highest level of food insecurity. This level is typically associated with situations like those in Gaza and Sudan, marked by famine, acute malnutrition among children and pregnant women, and large-scale displacement.

The United States announced a relief package worth approximately $32.5 million for Nigeria in September. The new support was intended to address hunger and malnutrition in the country.

However, before this announcement, the WFP had already halted food distributions in July across several nations in West and Central Africa, including Nigeria. The organisation said the suspension was due to major reductions in aid from the United States and other donors, which left it unable to sustain operations.

The WFP appealed to Washington to reverse the cuts, warning in a social media post that “this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation.”

Despite these efforts, Nigeria is still seeing a significant decline in aid and humanitarian support, and without urgent intervention, the country will continue to decline rapidly.

In a statement, the WFP commented that, “Northern Nigeria is experiencing the most severe hunger crisis in a decade, with rural farming communities the hardest hit.”

AP News, Maghrebi.org