Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has issued a stark warning that hunger across northern Nigeria has reached levels not seen in a decade, with desperate residents now joining bandits and insurgent groups simply to access food and income. The revelation, made on Thursday, July 2, 2026, paints the clearest picture yet of how deprivation and violence now feed each other in a region battling its worst food security crisis in nearly ten years.
According to the WFP's latest Cadre Harmonisé analysis, more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria are experiencing "crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels" of hunger — an increase of almost two million since the previous projection. The agency warned that Nigeria's food security crisis is worsening faster than previously anticipated, with conflict driving hunger in some northern states, particularly the northeast, to levels not recorded in almost a decade.
In a deeply troubling development, the WFP disclosed that communities have reported cases of individuals enlisting with armed groups "in search of food or income, underlining the risks created when hunger deepens and people run out of options." The suspension of food assistance in some areas due to severe funding shortfalls is pushing desperate households toward extreme survival choices, raising fears that hunger is becoming a recruitment tool for criminal and extremist networks.
"Communities have reported cases of individuals joining armed groups in search of food or income, underlining the risks created when hunger deepens and people run out of options," the WFP said in its statement. The agency expressed deep concern that the suspension of food aid was pushing families toward desperate coping measures.
Kinday Samba, WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said the crisis was expanding beyond areas traditionally affected by insurgency. "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.
Jihadists and Bandits Compound the Crisis
Nigeria has battled a jihadist insurgency centered in the northeast since 2009, with a resurgence in violence since 2025. Jihadist factions have pushed into the northwest, a zone already destabilised by armed "bandit" gangs, producing overlapping crises now driving mass displacement. The expansion of violence has forced more people from farmland, restricted humanitarian access, and created a vicious cycle where hunger fuels the very violence that creates it.
Government control remains thin outside urban centres, leaving swathes of rural farming communities, which grow much of the nation's food, exposed to repeated attacks. The number of areas too dangerous for WFP frontline staff has doubled, with 15 additional locations now considered partially inaccessible. Cargo movements along major routes are increasingly disrupted by attacks and illegal checkpoints, impacting how efficiently humanitarian supplies can be delivered.
In Borno State, the epicentre of the insurgency, the situation is dire. More than three million people are acutely food insecure, including more than 750,000 in severe hunger conditions and over 10,000 facing catastrophic hunger — one step short of famine. While those in catastrophic hunger represent a small share of Borno's overall food insecure population, the figure provides a stark warning that conflict, displacement and shrinking humanitarian assistance are pushing the crisis into more dangerous territory.
Across the three northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, the food-insecure population has climbed to 6.2 million. Yet WFP can currently reach only 740,000 of them, leaving 5.5 million people — mostly children — without life-saving food and nutrition assistance. This marks a steep fall from the 1.3 million people the agency supported at the height of the 2025 lean season.
The humanitarian emergency is being compounded by significant reductions in international aid, particularly following funding cuts by the United States under President Donald Trump and reduced contributions from other Western donors. These cuts have hit some of Nigeria's poorest households, thinning the humanitarian lifeline just as needs surge.
The International Monetary Fund, in its 2026 Article IV report, said poverty rose to 63 percent by the end of 2025 while more than 27 million Nigerians faced food insecurity. The Fund credited President Bola Tinubu's fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate reforms with improving macroeconomic stability but also flagged insecurity in the food-producing north as a major risk to the economy. The reforms, while supported by economists, have also driven punishing inflation, pushing essential goods further out of reach for millions of Nigerians.
WFP requires $89 million over the next six months to continue food and nutrition assistance and essential logistics support across northern Nigeria. Without urgent funding and improved security access, the agency warned that hunger could deepen further and fuel more displacement, exploitation and insecurity across the region.
The most frightening part of the crisis, as analysts have noted, is that hunger is no longer just making people weak; it is making them vulnerable to armed groups that can offer food, cash or protection when the state and aid agencies are absent. For families who have lost everything — their farms, their homes, their livelihoods — joining a bandit group may appear to be the only option left.
The WFP said the situation is worsening at a time when resources are at their lowest and communities are running out of options. With the June to August lean season now underway and funding exhausted, the agency has warned that without fresh contributions its reach could shrink further, deepening a cycle in which hunger sustains the very violence that creates it.
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters News | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments