ABUJA: Hunger across Nigeria’s conflict-hit north is at levels not seen in a decade as violence spreads and aid shrinks, the UN’s World Food Programme warned Thursday, with more than three million people “acutely food insecure.”
The country has been battling a jihadist insurgency centered in the northeast since 2009, with a resurgence in violence since 2025.
Jihadists have also been expanding into the northwest, which is already facing a separate, overlapping crisis from armed “bandit” gangs.
“What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding,” WFP regional director for west and central Africa, Kinday Samba, said in a statement, noting the spread of violence “across a much wider area and forcing people from farmland, driving displacement and restricting humanitarian access.”
Aid cuts under US President Donald Trump and other western countries have hit some of Nigeria’s poorest households in recent years.
