The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced the closure of more than 150 nutrition clinics it supports in Borno and Yobe states, citing severe funding shortfalls that threaten to end life-saving treatment for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children.

According to a statement released by the humanitarian agency, the clinics’ closure will deprive over 300,000 children under two of essential nutritional support, placing them at increased risk of acute malnutrition and wasting.

“WFP’s food and nutrition stocks have been completely exhausted,” the organisation stated. “Our last supplies left the warehouses in early July, and assistance will cease once the current distribution cycle is completed.”

This latest development comes just weeks after WFP revealed it would suspend emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in northeast Nigeria by the end of July.

Escalating Crisis Amid Record Hunger

WFP’s Country Director for Nigeria, David Stevenson, described the situation as a growing threat to regional security.

“Nearly 31 million people in Nigeria are now facing acute hunger a record number,” Stevenson said. “This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis; it’s a threat to regional stability as families pushed beyond their limits are left with nowhere to turn.”

In conflict-affected areas across northern Nigeria, escalating violence by extremist groups continues to displace communities, with 2.3 million people across the Lake Chad Basin already forced from their homes.

WFP warned that as humanitarian aid dries up, desperate families may resort to negative coping strategies including migration, child labour, or even recruitment into insurgent groups.

“When emergency assistance ends, many will migrate in search of food and shelter. Others will adopt harmful survival tactics. Food assistance can prevent these outcomes,” Stevenson added.

$130 Million Urgently Needed

The UN agency said that despite reaching 1.3 million people in the first half of 2025, its planned support for an additional 720,000 Nigerians in the second half of the year is now in jeopardy.

To sustain operations and avert a complete collapse of food and nutrition aid in Nigeria, WFP says it urgently requires $130 million in new funding.

“WFP has the capacity and expertise to scale up its humanitarian response, but the critical funding gap is paralysing operations,” the agency stressed.

As the humanitarian crisis deepens in northeast Nigeria, the organisation is calling on international partners and donors to step in urgently to prevent further suffering and instability in the region.