In November 2016, WFP launched an emergency operation in partnership with the government and other humanitarian agencies to supply food, nutrition and health support in hard-to-reach areas of the Borno and Yobe states. WFP has scaled up its assistance to reach more than 1 million people every month and avert famine.

The agency focuses on:

• Providing food and, where markets are functioning, cash-based assistance.
• Providing specialized nutritious food for children under age two at risk of malnutrition.
• Providing safe and reliable air transport to the humanitarian community. This includes the use of helicopter to carry vital relief—staff, medicines, vaccines, ready-to-use specialized nutritious food—to hard-to-reach, isolated areas.
• Gathering data for a better understanding of needs. WFP is using mobile phone surveys and working to analyze satellite imagery so that humanitarian needs are clearer and assistance can reach the most vulnerable.

In July 2017, WFP assisted 1.1 million people in northeast Nigeria. This included 953,000 people who received general food distributions, 170,000 who received cash or vouchers and 236,000 children and women who received specialized nutritious food.

In an effort to restore livelihoods and combat food insecurity during the lean season — the time between harvests when food runs out — WFP has been working with the Food and Agriculture Organization to support small-scale agricultural production by distributing seeds, tools, fertilizer and starter kits along with food rations. The two agencies reached 609,000 people with the integrated agriculture assistance in July 2017.

Insecurity persists in parts of northeast Nigeria, disrupting food supplies, seriously hindering access to basic services and limiting agricultural activities. For the fourth consecutive year, conflict has prevented many people from farming. The country’s hunger season — the time of year when the last harvest runs out — began earlier than ever because families already exhausted their food supplies.

Although an increasing amount of territory has become accessible to humanitarian workers, the situation remains unpredictable following violent attacks and security threats.

Humanitarian needs are alarmingly high, and WFP is faced with severe funding shortfalls — forcing it to halve basic food rations, cut cash assistance by 30 percent for people in urban areas who have other means of support and shrink critical nutrition assistance, targeting only the neediest women and the youngest children — those under age two instead of age five — with reduced rations.

WFP is helping only the very hungriest and most vulnerable. This is a brutal form of triage. With adequate resources, WFP could do so much more.