By Francesca Hangeior

A report, Cadre Harmonisé (CH) has revealed that approximately 33.1 million people, including 514,474 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and states are projected to experience a food crisis or worse (CH Phase 3) between June and August 2025.

The states identified as being affected include Sokoto, Zamfara, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Gombe, Taraba, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Plateau, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, and Benue.

The report also highlighted that Cross River, Enugu, Edo, Abia, Kogi, Nasarawa, Kwara, Ogun, and Rivers will be affected.

The CH report, a food and nutrition security analysis produced by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security with technical support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other partners, released also noted that about 25 million people, including 422,686 IDPs, are currently in a state of food crisis or worse from October to December 2024.

Regional Breakdown of crisis levels projected that an estimated 1.3 million people are expected to face a food crisis in Adamawa, two million in Borno while approximately 1.6 million people are projected to face critical food shortages mid-2025.

The CH report also highlighted severe malnutrition levels in Northeast and Northwest regions, estimating that nearly 5.44 million children aged 0-59 months are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition from May 2024 to April 2025.

This figure includes 1.8 million cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and 3.7 million cases of Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). Additionally, about 787,000 pregnant and lactating women are expected to need urgent nutrition support.

From May to September 2024, it revealed that more than half of the 133 Local Government Areas (LGAs) analysed were classified as IPC Acute Malnutrition (AMN) Phase 3 or higher. Northeast Nigeria had 10 LGAs in IPC AMN Phase 4 (Critical) and 21 in Phase 3 (Serious), while in Northwest 24 local government areas were classified as critical and 29 as serious.

The report however attributed the malnutrition crisis to factors such as insufficient food quantity and quality, inadequate feeding practices, poor health services, high disease prevalence, and low health-seeking behavior.

It further noted that economic challenges, compounded by food insecurity, limited water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, and security issues from ongoing conflict and displacement, are exacerbating the crisis.

Key drivers of food and nutrition insecurity, it said, are high cost of food and non-food items, climate shocks, and rising fuel prices which are currently affecting household food consumption and livelihoods.

FAO Nigeria and ECOWAS representative, Tofiq Braimah, stressed that Nigeria is facing “unprecedented times affecting livelihoods and food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations.”

He noted that the CH workshops aim to assess food security data to identify at-risk populations and propose measures to prevent food crises or further escalation.

In his remarks, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Fod Security, Temitope Fashedemi noted that with the spike in fuel prices, transportation costs have soared, squeezing farmers profit margins and potentially driving up food prices for consumers.

Fashedemi also noted that these challenges and the daunting insecurity situation which has continued to threaten Nigeria’s food and nutrition security, have led to disruptions in food system (food production, distribution, marketing and even stocking mechanisms), resulting in poor consumption patterns among several households especially, in areas affected by insecurity.

He however pledged government assurance and commitment to upholding and utilising the outcome and recommendations proffered from the workshop in implementing food and nutrition security interventions.

“We also recommend that these results be adopted for planning and implementation of food and nutrition security interventions across the federal MDAs, 26 CH states, the humanitarian community and among allpartners operating in Nigeria.