The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that worsening hunger in northern Nigeria is pushing some people to join armed groups in search of food and income, as food insecurity reaches its highest level in nearly a decade.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the WFP said communities across the region had reported cases of individuals joining bandit groups as a means of survival amid growing economic hardship and conflict.
The agency said more than 17 million people in northern Nigeria are currently experiencing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger.
Nigeria has battled a jihadist insurgency centred in the North-East since 2009, with violence escalating again since 2025. Insurgent activities have also spread into the North-West, where communities are already grappling with attacks by armed bandit groups.
WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Kinday Samba, said the humanitarian situation was becoming increasingly alarming as insecurity expanded into new areas.
“What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding,” Samba said, noting that the spread of violence is forcing people off their farmlands, driving displacement and restricting humanitarian access.
The agency also attributed the worsening humanitarian crisis to cuts in international aid, particularly following funding reductions by the United States and other Western donors.
At the same time, it noted that recent economic reforms have contributed to rising living costs, citing the International Monetary Fund’s assessment that poverty has increased under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
According to the WFP, expanding insecurity has significantly reduced humanitarian access, with the number of locations considered inaccessible to aid workers doubling in recent months.
“The number of inaccessible locations has doubled, with 15 additional areas now classified as partially inaccessible for WFP frontline staff,” the agency said.
It noted that government presence remains limited outside major urban centres, leaving many rural communities vulnerable to attacks by armed groups.
The WFP warned that Nigeria’s food security crisis is deteriorating faster than previously anticipated, with conflict driving hunger in parts of the North-East to levels not seen in almost 10 years.
In Borno State, the epicentre of the insurgency, more than three million people are acutely food insecure, including about 10,000 facing catastrophic levels of hunger.
Despite growing needs, the agency said its operations are shrinking because of severe funding shortages.
During the peak of the 2025 lean season, the WFP provided food and nutritional assistance to 1.3 million people. This year, however, it expects to reach only a little over half that number due to inadequate funding.
The agency added that while about 6.2 million people in north-eastern Nigeria are currently food insecure, it has sufficient resources to assist only 740,000 people, leaving about 5.5 million others—many of them children—without food assistance.
The WFP expressed concern that the suspension of food aid is forcing vulnerable households to adopt desperate survival strategies.
“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 agency said.
