LAGOS: A spike in attacks by militants across northern Nigeria is “driving hunger to levels never seen before” and is expected to result in the worst levels of food insecurity in Africa next year, according to a World Food Programme report released Tuesday.
The food agency of the United Nations projected 35 million people are likely to experience severe hunger in Nigeria by 2026, the highest on the continent and the largest since the agency began recording data in Nigeria.
The WFP also predicted at least 15,000 people in Borno state, the epicenter of Nigeria’s security crisis, will experience catastrophic hunger including famine-like conditions next year. Borno will be classified as Phase 5, the agency’s highest classification of food insecurity, similar to what has been seen in some parts of Gaza and Sudan.
“Northern Nigeria is experiencing the most severe hunger crisis in a decade, with rural farming communities the hardest hit,” the WFP said in a statement.
Widespread attacks by various armed groups have deterred farmers from using their land, officials said.
In October, Al-Qaeda-affiliate Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin took responsibility for its first attack in Nigeria, making the group the latest entrant in a pool of armed groups launching attacks in the country.
More than 300 students and 12 teachers were kidnapped from a school in Niger state on Nov. 21, only four days after after 25 schoolchildren were abducted 170 kilometers (106 miles) away in neighboring Kebbi state.
Nigeria also has been hard hit by a massive scaling down of UN food assistance following US President Donald Trump’s decision to gut the United States Agency for International Development.
The USAID cut ceased funding to the WFP, which said it will run out of resources for emergency food and nutrition assistance in December. Nigeria is one of the few other countries in the region where the cut has deepened the food crisis. In July, the agency suspended food assistance across West and Central Africa.
“Without confirmed funding, millions will be left without support in 2026, fueling instability and deepening a crisis that the world cannot afford to ignore,” the agency said.
UN food agency projects northern Nigeria to experience hunger at unprecedented level in 2026
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UN food agency projects northern Nigeria to experience hunger at unprecedented level in 2026
- WFP also predicted at least 15,000 people in Borno state will experience catastrophic hunger next year
- “Northern Nigeria is experiencing the most severe hunger crisis in a decade, with rural farming communities the hardest hit”
Attacks on Sudan health care facilities killed 69 this year: WHO
- “Five attacks on health care have already been recorded in Sudan, killing 69 people and injuring 49,” WHO chief wrote on X
- The WHO has confirmed at least 206 attacks on health care facilities since the start of the war
CAIRO: Five attacks on health care facilities have killed dozens of people in Sudan since the beginning of the year, the WHO said Saturday, as the war nears the start of its fourth year.
The fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has dismantled an already fragile medical system, with more than a third of facilities currently out of service.
“During the first 50 days of 2026, five attacks on health care have already been recorded in Sudan, killing 69 people and injuring 49,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
On Sunday a hospital was targeted in the southeastern state of Sennar, leaving three patients dead and seven people wounded, including an employee, Tedros said.
In three other attacks early this month, more than 30 people were killed when medical centers were targeted in South Kordofan, a vast region south of the capital Khartoum that is currently a focus of the fighting.
The WHO has confirmed at least 206 attacks on health care facilities since the start of the war in April 2023, resulting in the deaths of around 2,000 people and injuries to several hundred.
Last year alone, 65 attacks killed more than 1,620 people, accounting for 80 percent of all deaths worldwide linked to attacks on the medical sector, according to the WHO.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering what the UN says is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
According to the WHO, the country is facing multiple disease outbreaks, notably cholera, malaria, dengue and measles, in addition to malnutrition.
Some 4.2 million cases of acute malnutrition are expected to arise in Sudan this year, including more than 800,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition, the WHO chief said earlier this month.
Around 33 million people will be left without humanitarian aid in 2026, with the United Nations warning in January that its aid stocks could run out by the end of March.
