WFP Reveals 24.8 Million Nigerians In 26 States Facing Hunger Crisis

One of out every eight Nigerians are experiencing acute hunger this year across 26 states and millions are at risk of famine.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) issued a statement over the weekend, sharing it is "gravely concerned that years of armed conflict in North-east Nigeria is driving hunger and malnutrition, with millions in need of life-saving assistance and facing the risk of famine," ThisDayLive reported on Sunday.

"The March Cadre Harmonise projects that 4.3 million people in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states face severe hunger during the peak of the lean season between June and August 2023," the statement mentioned. "Almost 600,000 are on the brink of catastrophe."

According to the UN, 4.3 million Nigerians are going to "face emergency levels of food insecurity with extremely high rates of acute malnutrition and mortality in the absence of sustained scale-up of humanitarian assistance."

It further stated that there are two million children in the region that are likely to suffer from extreme malnutrition, noting that severe acute malnutrition cases among children have quadrupled to 700,000.

"More than 4.3 million people are also in need of food assistance in northwest Nigeria, resources for the northeast, have been increasingly squeezed," the UN shared. "A total of 24.8 million people or 1 out of 8 individuals are experiencing acute hunger this year in Nigeria's 26 states and the capital, Abuja."

While more people are in need of urgent food assistance, there is a high risk of not only starvation and death but people will be forced to find "coping mechanisms such as survival sex, selling possessions and child labor."

Moreover, the statement explained that there is a high risk of youth getting recruited into armed groups, where they will become "beyond the reach of humanitarian assistance and other social services."

"Chronic insecurity is preventing many people in the North-east from growing the food they need or earning an income," the statement added. "In the last year, the conflict has left households unable to leave their homes due to an increase in movement restrictions, killings, and abduction of civilians, particularly in Borno where the violence is concentrated."

The statement insisted that there are thousands of people who are left with only one month of food supply and people living in those conflict-affected areas earn minimum income.

Aside from the ongoing conflict, there are many other reasons for Nigerians to struggle such as surging inflation, impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war, the currency redesign policy, slow post-COVID-19 recovery, and unprecedented floods in 2022.

The armed conflict in North-east Nigeria is going on since 2009 between the Boko Haram extremist group and the government. So far, the conflict has resulted in the death of more than 350,000 people, as per multiple reports.