No fewer than 133.1 million Nigeria would face a global hunger crisis in 2025, the Cadre Harmonisé report on food and nutrition insecurity analysis has said.
A statement by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in a statement issued on Thursday, November 7, confirmed that the report was put together by the Nigerian government and its partners.
The partners include the World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund among others.
According to the report, people are expected to face a high level of food insecurity by the next lean season which is between June and August.
The statement said, “It is an alarming seven million people increase from the same period last year, driven by economic hardship, coupled with record high inflation, impacts of climate change and persistent violence in the northeastern states.
“Nationally, the number of people experiencing emergency levels (Phase 4) of food insecurity is projected to increase.
“While no populations have been classified as catastrophe (Phase 5), populations experiencing an emergency (Phase 4) are anticipated to increase from one million people in the peak of the 2024 lean season to 1.8 million people at the same period in 2025, representing an 80 per cent increase,” FAO stated.
The report also stated that about 5.4 million and almost 800,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are at risk of malnutrition.
The population that would be most affected are residents of northeast states – Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe- while others will be in the northwest – Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara states.