A recent report by the Cadre Harmonisé, in collaboration with Nigeria’s federal government and partners like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and UNICEF, has revealed that an estimated 133.1 million Nigerians are at risk of facing severe food insecurity by 2025. This report, released yesterday, highlights the worsening food crisis anticipated for Nigeria’s next lean season, from June to August, due to ongoing economic challenges, record inflation, climate change impacts, and persistent violence in the northeastern states.

The analysis indicates that the number of people experiencing extreme food insecurity (classified as Phase 4 or emergency level) could increase significantly, rising from one million in the 2024 peak lean season to 1.8 million in 2025—a concerning 80% jump. Although no populations have yet reached the catastrophic Phase 5 level, this sharp rise in emergency cases underscores the severity of the crisis. Additionally, the report identifies roughly 5.4 million children and 800,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in six particularly hard-hit states—Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Sokoto, Katsina, and Zamfara—as being highly vulnerable to acute malnutrition. Of these, 1.8 million children are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and will require critical nutrition interventions.

At the report’s presentation, Dr. Temitope Fashedemi, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, stressed the importance of implementing the report’s findings for planning and delivering food and nutrition aid across federal agencies and affected states. The FAO’s interim representative in Nigeria, Dominique Koffy Kouacou, reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to collaborating with partners to create sustainable solutions aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s agri-food systems and tackling food insecurity. David Stevenson, Country Director for the WFP, emphasized the urgent need to restore peace in the northeast, which has been severely impacted by conflict, to rebuild this area as a productive agricultural zone.

UNICEF’s Country Representative, Cristian Munduate, expressed deep concern for the crisis’ impact on children, who face the risk of irreversible physical and cognitive damage and, potentially, loss of life. She stressed the moral obligation to protect children’s rights to adequate nutrition and food security.

The United Nations has called on Nigeria’s government, donors, and other stakeholders to urgently allocate resources and enact interventions to prevent a food and nutrition catastrophe. It emphasized the need for immediate multi-sectoral support to address this growing humanitarian crisis and secure the well-being of millions across the country.