Maiduguri: On good days, Iya and her husband can barely feed their large family. On bad days, their seven children go to bed hungry in the small mud-brick hut they call home. In northeastern Nigeria’s Mafa displacement camp, where the family resides, August is shaping into a month of many bad days.
According to EMM, the World Food Programme (WFP) is beginning to cut food and nutrition assistance to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people across northeastern Nigeria due to drying donations, even as hunger soars in the region, fueled by conflict, insecurity, and extreme weather. Children are likely to be among those worst affected.
Iya and her family are no strangers to being uprooted. A decade ago, they fled armed fighters who attacked their village of Dikwa, about 38 kilometers away from the Mafa displacement camp. Initially seeking refuge in Chad, they returned to Nigeria a year later, settling in Mafa. However, the area around the camp remains perilous, with armed groups hindering farming and scarce employment opportunities. Those who manage to find work earn about US$0.30 daily, insufficient for basic sustenance.
The Mafa camp, with its mud-and-thatched shelters, houses thousands of displaced people, all dependent on WFP’s monthly rations that include cooking oil, sorghum, rice, and pinto beans. Residents like 45-year-old Yaanama, who were once self-sufficient farmers, now rely on food assistance amid uncertainty and fear of never returning to a normal life.
Beyond increasing hunger, the funding shortfall could lead to the closure of 150 nutrition centers supported by WFP in Nigeria’s northeast, putting 300,000 malnourished children at risk. Among them is two-year-old Ummi, who is receiving treatment for moderate-acute malnutrition at a Borno State health clinic. Her mother, Hafsat Rumanu, has already noticed improvements in her child’s condition thanks to the nutrient-packed peanut paste provided by WFP.
Another mother, Fatima Mustapha Ali, is witnessing recovery in her two children at a clinic in Maiduguri. However, without additional funds, the lifesaving supplies may soon run out, leaving families in desperate need of continued support.
WFP’s efforts in northeastern Nigeria are backed by Canada, the European Union, France, Sweden, UN CERF, and the United Kingdom.