More than one million people in Nigeria are at risk of starvation as the World Food Programme (WFP) prepares to suspend food assistance by August due to severe funding shortfalls, The Independent (UK) has reported.

WFP spokesperson for Nigeria, Chi Lael, confirmed that the organisation will exhaust all available resources by the end of July, with no financial contingency in place. ?We only have resources to go on until this month, and the way things are looking, people are at risk of starvation,? Lael told The Independent. ?We do not have any carry-over. We are using all the money we have, which takes us to July.?

Lael explained that the current situation departs sharply from typical funding cycles. ?There really is no plan for anyone to step in,? she said.

According to WFP, approximately 1.3 million Nigerians will receive food aid in July, but that figure will drop to zero by August. This development will also result in the closure of 150 nutrition clinics, immediately halting treatment for about 300,000 malnourished children.

This looming crisis follows a significant reduction in foreign aid, particularly from the United States. USAID had previously accounted for nearly half of WFP?s funding in Nigeria before the abrupt cancellation of aid contracts, including cuts under Elon Musk?s DOGE Programme. Other donor countries have also scaled back, Lael noted.

The situation compounds existing challenges in Nigeria?s North and the wider Lake Chad Basin, where intensifying conflicts, erratic climate patterns, and widespread displacement have created prolonged humanitarian distress. The region, already affected by 15 years of violence linked to Boko Haram, also faces growing climatic threats, including extreme flooding.

?In 2022, everyone said: We have not seen rains like this in a decade. Then in 2024, they said: We have not had rains like this in 30 years. And this year, Niger State has seen its worst floods in 60 years,? said Lael. ?It?s like the rainy season has just become the flooding season.

The impact is being felt acutely by displaced Nigerians like Murka, a 40-year-old mother of 10 in Yobe State. ?The WFP food ration only lasts us for 15 days, and after that we start struggling again,? she told WFP. ?Sometimes I don?t eat just to ensure that I feed my husband?s elderly parents and my children.?

Similarly, 25-year-old Yagana Bukar from Borno State said that when food is unavailable, she often boils water just to calm her hungry children. ?We just have water, which I put on fire that keeps boiling just to keep assuring the children that food will soon be ready till they fall asleep,? she said.

Lael warned that without aid, many families face impossible choices: remain in place and risk starvation, flee to uncertain conditions, or submit to recruitment by extremist groups like Boko Haram. ?All of these are horrible options,? she said.

Experts say the broader Lake Chad Basin, encompassing parts of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, is now facing worsening humanitarian conditions. ?The Lake Chad Basin feels like a forgotten crisis,? Lael told The Independent. ?People are in dire need, and Nigeria?s stability is crucial for regional stability.?

Despite the urgency, humanitarian response plans remain underfunded. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that its Chad response plan is currently only 11% funded.

Chadian environment minister Bakhit Djamous Hassan described the situation at a recent conference in London: ?We are facing rampant desertification, repeated droughts followed by devastating floods, all while hosting over a million refugees and internally displaced persons.?

With WFP?s Nigeria programme on the brink of collapse, aid workers and affected families are left uncertain about the future. ?The only hope they can find in their lives comes in the form of food assistance,? said Lael. ?And that hope is now under threat.? (The Guardian)

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