The United States has announced a $5 million contribution to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to help combat acute malnutrition in Nigeria’s north-west region.
Gatekeepers News reports that in a statement on Thursday, the US Embassy said the funding will enable UNICEF to provide ready-to-use therapeutic food, essential medicines, and other humanitarian supplies to at least 70,000 vulnerable children.
The intervention comes amid worsening malnutrition figures. In May, UNICEF disclosed that Nigeria now has the highest number of malnourished children in Africa and the second highest globally. Nemat Hajeebhoy, the agency’s chief of nutrition, said 600,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition, with half at risk of progressing to severe acute malnutrition.
Hajeebhoy’s remarks followed a $300 million emergency funding appeal by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to address a deepening food and nutrition crisis in Northern Nigeria. OCHA has also warned of a gradual drawdown of its operations in the country due to major funding gaps—gaps linked in part to recent US cuts to foreign aid.
The United States, which funded 47 percent of global humanitarian assistance last year, has sharply reduced its international aid contributions. Following President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, the administration froze nearly all foreign aid programmes, withdrew from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a central pillar of global humanitarian support. In July, Congress approved a rescissions package proposed by the White House that zeroed out 2025 funding for several key humanitarian programmes, including $142 million in core resources for UNICEF.
UN agencies have since warned about the far-reaching consequences of the cuts.
Despite the reductions, the US Embassy said the latest $5 million support to UNICEF reaffirms America’s “global leadership, strength, and compassion.”
