A critical shortage of funding, worsened by the cuts to foreign aid under the Trump administration, is threatening the delivery of lifesaving food to 80,000 children in Nigeria who are suffering from acute malnutrition, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.
The shortage, which could deplete vital supplies within the next two months, is part of a larger crisis affecting children across several countries, including Ethiopia.
UNICEF stated that a staggering 1.3 million children under the age of five in Nigeria and Ethiopia are at risk of losing access to essential treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year. According to UNICEF’s deputy executive director, Kitty Van der Heijden, the organization will run out of its crucial supply of Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food (RUTF) by May unless new funding is secured. Van der Heijden, speaking from Abuja during a video briefing in Geneva, emphasized that interruptions to this vital treatment are life-threatening.
“Without new funding, we will run out of our supply chain of Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food by May, and that means that 70,000 children in Ethiopia who depend on this treatment will not be served,” Van der Heijden said. “Interruption to continuous treatment is life-threatening.”
In Nigeria, UNICEF warned that it could run out of supplies to feed 80,000 malnourished children as soon as the end of this month. Van der Heijden recounted her recent visit to a hospital in Maiduguri, where she met a child so severely malnourished that her skin was literally falling off.
The funding shortfall stems from several factors, including a broader reduction in international donations to UN agencies, particularly after the U.S. government, which is UNICEF’s largest donor, implemented a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid on the first day of President Donald Trump’s return to office in January. This decision, compounded by orders halting various programs from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has disrupted global humanitarian aid efforts, including those aimed at providing food and medical care to vulnerable populations.
“This funding crisis will become a child survival crisis,” Van der Heijden warned, adding that the abruptness of the funding cuts left UNICEF unable to properly prepare or adjust its operations in advance.
The cuts have also impacted essential health programs in Ethiopia, particularly those aimed at providing nutrition and malaria care for pregnant women and young children. UNICEF reported that 23 mobile health clinics in Ethiopia’s Afar region were forced to shut down, leaving only seven operational due to a lack of funding.
As the situation grows more dire, UNICEF has called for immediate international support to prevent further loss of life and ensure that children in both Nigeria and Ethiopia receive the care and nourishment they desperately need.
