The United States has approved $32.5 million in assistance to Nigeria as part of efforts to address the country’s deepening hunger crisis, with a significant portion of the funds earmarked for pregnant women and children.
The U.S. Mission to Nigeria confirmed the support in a statement on Wednesday, noting that the aid will provide food assistance and nutritional support to more than 764,000 people in conflict-affected communities across the northeast and northwest.
According to the statement, the package includes nutrition top-ups for 41,569 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls as well as 43,235 children, delivered through electronic food vouchers.
The announcement marks a rare shift in U.S. foreign policy, coming after years of aid cuts that began under former President Donald Trump, when funding through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was suspended.
Northern Nigeria is currently facing what experts describe as an “unprecedented hunger crisis.” In July, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that over 1.3 million people risk going without food, with at least 150 nutrition clinics in Borno State threatened with closure due to lack of funding.
The WFP also suspended food assistance across several West and Central African countries earlier this year, citing global aid cuts that severely limited its operations.
For Nigeria, the U.S. intervention comes at a critical moment. The northeast remains scarred by more than a decade of insurgency that has killed at least 35,000 civilians and displaced over 2 million people, while rising insecurity in the northwest and north-central regions continues to disrupt farming and food production.
Without this aid, thousands of vulnerable families, especially women and children would be left without immediate access to nutrition support, worsening the humanitarian crisis.
As Nigeria battles both insecurity and economic hardship, the $32.5 million U.S. assistance package is expected to provide temporary relief. But aid groups warn that without long-term solutions to conflict and food insecurity, the cycle of hunger in Africa’s most populous country will persist.
