Aid Organizations Fear Nigeria’s Hunger Crisis Will Get Worse After Significant US Funding Cuts
The World Food Programme predicts that 600,000 Nigerian children may perish if emergency food operations are severely hampered by US aid restrictions.
As funding runs out, hundreds of thousands of children could perish in Nigeria’s worsening hunger crisis, according to aid organizations like the World Food Programme (WFP).
Millions of people have left the bloodshed caused by terrorist organizations in northern Nigeria, where the situation is most terrible. The World Food Program estimates that 600,000 children are in danger of dying.
Ancel Kats, a WFP representative in Nigeria, stated, “There are millions of people who need our help.” “But the money isn’t coming in.”
Up until the beginning of this year, about half of Nigeria’s humanitarian aid came from the US. But a few weeks after taking office, President Donald Trump declared that USAID would be dismantled, which led to a precipitous drop in foreign funding. Since then, a number of other Western countries have also reduced their development funding.
More than 150 malnutrition clinics have already been shut down by the WFP in Nigeria, and it currently lacks more than $115 million to continue operating. Food distribution programs in Bama, Borno State, are being reduced, and assistance is now only available to the most vulnerable.
According to Soumbami Tukunabo, a relief worker for the Italian organization InterSOS, “they all rely on WFP to distribute this food for them to eat.” “It would be terrible to inform them that the caseload will be reduced as a result of worldwide funding cuts.”
In addition to food aid, Nigeria has lost over $600 million in health financing since the U.S. withdrew its help, which is almost one-fifth of its entire health budget. Aid organizations caution that unless immediate foreign assistance is restored, the combined effect might drive millions more into poverty and starvation.
