The United Nations has suspended its Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) in northeast Nigeria after nine years of operations, citing a critical $5.4m funding shortfall that risks isolating millions of vulnerable people in one of Africa’s longest-running humanitarian crises.
The service, operated by the World Food Programme (WFP), provided a lifeline for aid workers and relief supplies to reach conflict-torn Borno and Yobe states, where insecurity and poor infrastructure make road travel perilous.
Last week, UNHAS ended its fixed-wing operations in Nigeria, raising fears of a deeper humanitarian emergency in the region.
“UNHAS cannot continue without funding. $5.4m is needed to remain operational for the next six months,” U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York. “Without this funding, the humanitarian response in northeast Nigeria risks being cut off from the very people it is meant to serve.”
The impact of the suspension is already stark. In 2024, UNHAS flights carried over 9,000 passengers, while more than 4,500 humanitarian staff had relied on the service this year alone to reach vulnerable populations. For nine years, the service transported aid personnel, medical supplies, and emergency cargo directly into the epicenter of Nigeria’s humanitarian crisis.
Margot van der Velden, WFP’s regional director for West and Central Africa, said the financial strain is part of a broader funding crisis affecting the agency’s operations across the region.
“The agency urgently requires $5.4m just to sustain food and nutrition operations in Nigeria for the next six months,” she warned.
The WFP had earlier sounded alarms in July, cautioning that it might be forced to suspend emergency food and nutrition support for 1.3 million people in northeast Nigeria unless new donor contributions were secured.
That warning is now closer to reality, with humanitarian workers expressing concern that the air service shutdown could severely undermine access to communities already on the brink.
Despite delivering assistance to 3.6 million people in northeast Nigeria in 2023, aid agencies say needs continue to outpace resources. More than 8 million people in the region are projected to require humanitarian support this year due to ongoing conflict, displacement, and food insecurity.
Humanitarian actors emphasize that without the resumption of UNHAS, aid delivery could face dangerous delays, putting lives at risk and heightening insecurity for aid workers forced to depend on unsafe road travel.
The U.N. has launched fresh appeals to international donors to urgently fill the $5.4m gap to restore flight operations and safeguard humanitarian access in Nigeria’s northeast.
