Famine: Nearly 32 Million Nigerians Facing Acute Food Shortages, Report Warns

Nearly 32 Million Nigerians Facing Acute Food Shortages, Report Warns (Worthy News In-Depth)

Stefan J. Bos,

More than 31.8 million Nigerians, including Christians, are acutely short of food due to attacks by Islamic fighters and the removal of fuel subsidies, while deadly flooding also contributed to the crisis, Nigeria’s government and others said Tuesday.

The announcements indicated a sharp rise in the 18.6 million people assessed as vulnerable to acute food insecurity by the United Nations World Food Program from October to December 2023.

“The surge in food commodity prices, which is a result of the removal of fuel subsidy in addition to security challenges, has placed millions of Nigerians in a precarious situation,” said Nigeria’s Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

The study on food security cited by the government was carried out by development partners such as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and the German development agency GIZ.

“Finally and finally, the kitchen is empty,” Paul Jongas, a Christian farmer and evangelist in Abuja, told Worthy News on Tuesday.

He asked for “prayers for a miracle tonight” as his agricultural land did not yet provide enough food for him, his wife, and their four young children.

“Please pray for me and my family again. There are just two weeks to the harvest, but sincerely, my children are starving due to a lack of food,” he said.

Adding to difficulties for farmers in several areas of the country is flooding that reportedly killed at least 49 people and left thousands displaced after heavy rains caused flooding in Nigeria’s northeast.

Three northeastern states, Jigawa, Adamawa, and Taraba, have been hard hit by floods, with 41,344 people displaced, according to National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) spokesperson Manzo Ezekiel.

Earlier, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of some 237 million people, experienced its worst flood in more than a decade 

That flooding in 2022, which killed more than 600 people, displaced around 1.4 million and destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland, according to official estimates.

Additionally, farmers, especially Christians, face attacks by armed groups wielding guns and machetes, including Islamists attacking Christians.

Thousands of Christians have been killed in recent years by these groups, Worthy News and other outlets reported.

Security forces also suffer, including Nigerian police saying two of its officers were killed and three left unconscious Sunday after an attack involving knives and explosives by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in the capital, Abuja, on Sunday.