Nigeria faces record hunger amid insurgent attacks, aid cuts

25/11/2025 13:38

A surge in militant attacks and instability in northern Nigeria is driving hunger to record levels, the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday, warning that nearly 35 million people could go hungry in 2026 as it runs out of resources in December.



The projection, based on the latest Cadre Harmonise - an analysis of acute food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel and West Africa region, is the highest number recorded in Nigeria since monitoring began, WFP said.



Violence has escalated in 2025, with attacks by insurgents including al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which carried out its first strike in Nigeria last month, and Islamic State West Africa Province.



Recent incidents underscore the crisis: ISWAP fighters killed a brigadier-general in the northeast, while armed bandits abducted more than 300 Catholic school students in a mass kidnapping days after storming a public school, killing a deputy head teacher and seizing 25 schoolgirls.



"The advance of insurgency presents a serious threat to stability in the north, with consequences reaching beyond Nigeria," said David Stevenson, WFP Nigeria country director.