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  • Publication | 2025

Northern Nigeria’s hunger crisis: Transforming food aid to rebuild food systems

Global Food and Nutrition Security

Humanitarian agencies around the world face a never-ending race against time to save lives in places where conflicts, extreme weather, and other shocks lead to collapsing economies, leaving populations facing hunger and other forms of food insecurity.

Nigeria is a prime example. Across the country, lives and livelihoods are being shattered by conflict and climate shocks. The 16-year insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions. Persistent droughts and recurring storms have disrupted farming and herding. Once a breadbasket, the country’s northern regions now rely heavily on humanitarian food assistance.

The numbers speak for themselves: 30.6 million people are food insecure—10 million in three northern states; 17 million children are malnourished—the highest number in Africa, second highest globally after India.

Farmers are cut off from their fields. Traders struggle to move goods through dangerous or impassable roads. Millions are displaced. Yet amid this fragility, pockets of resilience are emerging in areas where conflict has subsided and some farmers can return to their farms.