Posted on: Tue 05-08-2025

In a shocking development, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced the closure of 150 health clinics in Nigeria’s conflict-ridden northeast — a move that could leave 300,000 children without lifesaving nutrition and medical care.

Despite a $130 million emergency appeal, the WFP says it has received zero new funding to continue supporting 1.3 million vulnerable Nigerians. The fallout? A devastating blow to child nutrition and regional stability.

“The immediate and most brutal effect will be on child nutrition,” said Chi Lael, WFP’s head of communications.

Nigeria is already grappling with a record-breaking food crisis, with 31 million people at risk of hunger. The northeast, plagued by years of insurgency and displacement, is now on the brink of collapse.

This year, Nigeria allocated a mere $326,000 to combat malnutrition in high-burden states — a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of the crisis.

Humanitarian agencies across Africa are facing a massive funding drought, worsened by global shifts in aid priorities post-COVID and the Ukraine war. Even Doctors Without Borders has sounded the alarm, calling the situation a “preventable crisis”.

“The fear is that when food assistance ends, so will stability in northern Nigeria,” Lael warned.

With donor fatigue setting in and international focus shifting, the question remains: Who will save Nigeria’s starving children?

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