Margot van der Velden said nearly 31 million people in Nigeria are facing acute food insecurity and need life-saving food — a number "equivalent to the entire population of Texas going hungry."
But the regional director of the World Food Program (WFP) said that due to severe funding cuts starting in August, "we will face the heartbreaking reality of having to suspend humanitarian aid for the populations in areas devastated by conflict."
That means over 1.3 million people in Nigeria will lose access to food and nutritional support, 150 nutrition clinics in the northeast where Islamic militants are active may close, 300,000 children will be at risk of severe malnutrition, and 700,000 displaced people "will be left with no means of survival," she said.
For years, the US Agency for International Development had been the backbone of the humanitarian response in northeastern Nigeria, helping non-governmental organisations provide food, shelter and health care to millions of people.
The Trump administration has slashed foreign assistance and dismantled USAID, accusing the agency of waste and fraud and supporting a liberal agenda. Other Western donors have also cut international aid spending.
Van der Velden said WFP urgently needs $130 million to sustain its operations in Nigeria.
She stressed that the crisis is not just in Nigeria but across west and central Africa, where the program is also facing critical funding shortfalls that are forcing the Rome-based agency to reduce or suspend operations in some of Africa's "most fragile" countries.
"WFP's aid has dropped by 60 per cent, now reaching only 5 million people, with Mali and Niger suffering cuts of over 80 per cent in emergency support," van der Velden said.
"In countries such as Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, we are seeing the same pattern: rising needs, shrinking resources and growing risks."
According to WFP's latest data, Nigeria's appeal for over $130 million for this year is only 21 per cent funded.
The agency said the crisis in Africa's most populous country is driven by families' depleted food stocks, soaring food prices, inflation, currency depreciation and conflict — combined with "unprecedented funding cuts."
Van der Velden warned that when there is no food aid hunger deepens and tensions rise.
"Communities fracture and the risk of instability increases, making it more difficult to maintain peace and resilience in the region," she said.
