Drastic cuts to humanitarian aid in north-eastern Nigeria could prove a boon to one of the world’s most deadly militant groups, Boko Haram, aid agencies have warned.
A reduction of funding in recent months has forced the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to ration its support, and now it has completely run out.
“It will be much easier for militants to lure youths to join them and spiral insecurity across the whole region,” Trust Mlambo, head of operations in the area for WFP, told the BBC.
Notorious around the world for kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok more than a decade ago, Boko Haram has taken thousands of people captive during its raids and forced more than a million from their village homes.
Boko Haram was initially a religious Muslim group founded in the early 2000s that was opposed to Western education. It went on to launch military operations in 2009 with the political aim of creating an Islamic state, causing mayhem across the region – including in neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
It has been classified as one of the world’s deadliest jihadist groups, and a splinter group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2015.
Aisha Abubakar has lost more than half her family because of attacks on her village in Borno state and illness.
“My husband and six children were killed in the bush,” the 40-year-old told the BBC.
Four of her children survived, including one recently rescued from captivity after being kidnapped by the insurgents.
She fled to Gwoza, a garrison town to the west of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
Gwoza is set at the foot of a stretch of breathtaking rocky hills. But beyond the hills, camped out in dense forested areas lies the danger the town’s tens of thousands of camp residents fear – Boko Haram.
“I could never go back to the village,” said Ms Abubakar. “Life in the village was unbearable, we were always on the run.”
She has been trying to rebuild her life. She has found a new husband at Gwoza’s camp for internally displaced persons and together they have a seven-month-old baby.
Ms Abubakar is among close to 1.4 million displaced people in north-east Nigeria who are fully dependent on humanitarian aid for survival.
She spoke to the BBC after bringing her youngest child to the aid distribution centre at Gwoza. She rocked the baby while waiting for her turn at the registration centre, holding her blue debit card.
The support for the month is credited onto the card and the amount depends on the holder’s family size. Ms Abubukar received $20 (£15) – and with it, she bought a sack of maize and other food items.
She said she was grateful, but that it was not enough to sustain her family for a month.
“We don’t have any more to give after this [month’s] cycle,” said Mr Mlambo of the WFP.
“Our warehouses are empty, and we just are desperate for any generous donations.”
The US State Department acknowledged its recent reorganisation of humanitarian assistance programmes had resulted in some cuts, in line with President Donald Trump’s America First policy.
“The United States continues to be the most generous nation in the world, and we urge other nations to increase their humanitarian efforts,” a senior State Department official told the BBC.
It has said previously that 80% of the US government’s support to the WFP has not been affected.
On the ground in Nigeria, the lower support from all donors to the WFP this year has already resulted in a spike in malnutrition rates.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said the number of children with the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition more than doubled in the first half of the year.
“Six-hundred-and-fifty-two children have already died in our facilities since the beginning of 2025 due to lack of timely access to care,” the medical charity said.
The true scale of the crisis exceeds all expectations, MSF’s country representative for Nigeria Ahmed Aldikhari said in a statement.
Source: BBC News
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