Trump aid cuts will push Nigerians into the arms of Boko Haram militants
Four of her children survived, including one recently rescued from captivity after being kidnapped by the insurgents.She fled to Gwoza, a garrison town to the west of the city Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.Gwoza is set at the foot of a stretch of breathtaking rocky hills. But beyond the hills, camped out in dense forested areas lies the danger the town's tens of thousands of camp residents fear - Boko Haram."I could never go back to the village," said Ms Abubakar. "Life in the village was unbearable, we were always on the run."She has been trying to rebuild her life after it was shattered. She has found a new husband at Gwoza's camp for internally displaced persons and together they have a seven-month-old baby.
Ms Abubakar is among close to 1.4 million displaced people in north-east Nigeria who are fully dependent on humanitarian aid for survival.She spoke to the BBC after bringing her youngest child to the aid distribution centre at Gwoza. She rocked the baby while waiting for her turn at the registration centre, holding her blue debit card.The support for the month is credited onto the card and the amount depends on the holder's family size. Ms Abubukar received $20 (£15) - and with it, she bought a sack of maize and several other food items.She said she was grateful for the money, but the amount could not sustain her family for a month.
"We don't have any more to give after this [month's] cycle," said Mr Mlambo of the WFP. "Our warehouses are empty, and we just are desperate for any generous donations."The US State Department acknowledged its recent reorganisation of humanitarian assistance programmes had resulted in some cuts, in line with President Donald Trump's America First policy."The United States continues to be the most generous nation in the world, and we urge other nations to increase their humanitarian efforts," a senior State Department official told the BBC.It has said previously that the US government's global support to the WFP - about 80% - has not been affected.On the ground in Nigeria, the lower support from all donors to the WFP this year has already resulted in a spike in malnutrition rates.Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said the number of children with the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition more than doubled in the first half of the year."Six-hundred-and-fifty-two children have already died in our facilities since the beginning of 2025 due to lack of timely access to care," the medical charity said.The true scale of the crisis exceeds all expectations, MSF's country representative for Nigeria Ahmed Aldikhari said in a statement.He added that 2024 had "marked a turning point in northern Nigeria's nutritional crisis", as major donors including the US, UK and the European Union had scaled down or halted their support altogether.
Nigeria is one of Africa's largest economies and its most populous nation but has long been beset by rampant corruption.It has also undergone massive inflation and currency devaluation in recent years and failed to bring under control the insurgency in the north-east of the country.However, its leadership has lately publicly recognised the malnutrition challenge the government faces.Two weeks ago, Vice-President Kashim Shettima said malnutrition had deprived "40% of Nigerian children under five their full physical and cognitive potential", and promised to tackle it.The statement followed the inauguration, last month, of a nutrition board, which he described as a "war room to battle against malnutrition in every corner of the country".But beyond the rallying call, the question is how fast and how far it can act to halt and reverse the staggering levels of undernutrition amid the sweeping and sudden cuts to funding much of the region relied on for years.More than 150 donor-funded clinics that have been treating malnutrition in the north-east of the country are also facing imminent closure.Back in Gwoza, a mother of two feels defeated after learning her first child, Amina, is now malnourished despite her best efforts to provide healthy food."I feel bad, because every mother wants her baby to be healthy," 25-year-old Hauwa Badamasi told the BBC.
She said she had been unable to access her family's farm near her home village for years because of insecurity."The aid has stopped and people are killed on the farm. What are we going to do with our lives?" she asked as three-year-old Amina ate the nutritional supplement she had just been given at the Hausari B clinic.It serves some 90,000 people, many of them farmers - like Ms Badamasi - displaced by the insurgency."We will be in a dire situation with no food and no medicine," said Ms Badamasi. "Our survival depends on these essentials."She was given a bag of the supplement - peanut paste - to continue treatment at home. It may well be the last, unless the funding situation changes.The WFP's Mr Mlambo offered a bleak assessment of things to come, suggesting the lack of food could push desperate people back into the hands of the militants."If people here feel that their livelihood [is gone], they can't even have the next meal, for sure, they will be pushed to go just across the [hills] to enrol," said Mr Mlambo.While those living in Gwoza feel protected by the military's presence there, they have little faith in the army's ability to end the insurgency - and fear for their future.Additional reporting by the BBC's Kyla Herrmannsen
You may also be interested in:
Nigeria's Chibok girls: Parents of kidnapped children heartbroken - againWhat is USAID and why is Trump closing it?Trump global aid cuts risk 14 million deaths in five years, report saysNigeria's kidnap crisis: Inside story of a ransom negotiator
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
7 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Scottish Tories eye Reform electoral pact
Senior Scottish Conservatives have discussed striking an electoral pact with Reform UK for the Holyrood elections next spring. One figure backing a deal told The Telegraph it could help avoid splitting the vote on the Right and kick the SNP out of power in Scotland. The deal, which would not need to be made public, would see the Tories either not stand candidates or go easy in areas where Reform is better placed to win and vice versa. It comes as Nigel Farage 's party sits above the Conservatives in third place in opinion polls for the Scottish Parliament elections next May. A pact does not have the backing of Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, whose team released a statement ruling out the possibility when approached by The Telegraph. But the fact a deal is being considered at senior levels in the party underscores the scale of Reform's popularity surge north of the border and the concerns it has triggered among Tories. In Scotland, Reform now has 15 councillors, 14 of whom used to be Conservatives. It is in marked contrast to other political parties previously run by Mr Farage, such as the UK Independence Party (Ukip), which struggled to get a foothold north of border. One Tory MSP has privately spoken of a defection 'watch list' in Holyrood of those suspected of switching to Reform. Mr Farage also waved away the idea he would agree to any such pact, telling The Telegraph: 'No chance. The Tories are dying in Scotland and I've got no desire to do a deal with them whatsoever.' The idea of some form of agreement, public or private, between the Conservatives and Reform has become a common discussion point in Westminster. Average UK-wide voting polls have Reform in first place on 30 per cent of the vote, with the Tories in a distant third on 17 per cent. Labour is in second place on 22 per cent. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has ruled out a pre-vote deal with Mr Farage, but speculation continues with the next general election not due until 2029. The recent by-election result for the Scottish Parliament seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse underscored the challenges of Right-wing parties splitting the vote. Labour won the seat with 32 per cent of the vote, followed by the SNP on 29 per cent. Reform came third on 26 per cent. Had the Tories, who got 6 per cent, not stood a candidate, it is possible Reform would have beaten Labour and taken the seat, though pollsters often caution against hard conclusions when predicting voter behaviour. Mr Farage has agreed to election pacts before. The Brexit Party, the precursor to Reform which Mr Farage led, had criticism of the Tory handling of the issue of Europe as its heart. Yet he still agreed not to stand candidates against sitting Conservatives at the 2019 general election to help Boris Johnson win and get a Brexit deal through the Commons, securing the UK's departure from the European Union. Despite interest in some quarters of the Scottish Conservative Party, other figures strongly played down the possibility of a pact. One Scottish Tory politician who has spent years in influential positions said: 'Churchill's phrase comes to mind, 'You don't negotiate with a tiger when your head's in its mouth'. We're in competition with Reform – we're not in partnership with them.' The source said Scottish Tory supporters had brought up the prospect of a deal with Reform but that there was little chance it would be adopted by the leadership. Another senior Scottish Tory said: 'Why would Reform do a deal? I can see why we might be interested in it, but why would they?' There have long been suspicions on the Right of coordination between Labour and the Liberal Democrats at general elections to maximise the chances of Tory defeats. The Lib Dems surged from winning 11 MPs at the 2019 general election to 72 MPs at the 2024 general election with almost no increase in overall vote share. The party's strategists have talked about how they ruthlessly focused on a small number of winnable seats rather than competing hard everywhere. Labour was likely to have benefited from the decreased campaigning in non-target seats. But there are reasons why striking some form of deal would be less likely in elections for the Scottish Parliament than the UK-wide Parliament in Westminster. The electoral system for the Scottish Parliament has a proportional element, meaning as well as individual constituency races a party wins some MPs for their overall vote totals. Reform, whose strategists hope to get between 10 and 20 MSPs next spring, is expected to get their victories almost entirely via this way, known as 'the list', rather than winning constituencies. That could provide a disincentive to strike a deal with the Tories, given a lower overall vote total would likely mean fewer MSPs thanks to this proportion element of the election. In polling for next spring's Scottish Parliament elections, Reform is on around 17 per cent, above the Tories on around 12 per cent. The SNP is top, followed by Labour. A year ago, it looked likely that Labour could win power in Scotland but a support slump since Sir Keir Starmer took office last summer means the SNP is now well-placed to remain in office. A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: 'Nigel Farage has said he is content with the SNP winning another five years in power and Reform stood multiple pro-independence candidates in the general election, so no, this won't be happening. 'The Scottish Conservatives want to get the SNP out of power, while Reform will gladly help the nationalists.'
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
Lesotho's textile factories face closures despite US tariff cut
The southern African nation of Lesotho has had its U.S. export tariff reduced from a threatened 50% to 15% but its crucial textile industry still faces massive factory closures, officials said on Friday. Despite a reduction announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, the country's textile sector says it remains at a competitive disadvantage and faces ongoing factory closures and job losses. In April, the Trump administration announced a 50% tariff on imports from Lesotho, the highest among all countries. The tariffs were paused across the board but the anticipated increase wreaked havoc across the country's textile industry, which is its biggest private sector employer with over 30,000 workers. About 12,000 of these workers work for garment factories exporting to the U.S. market, supplying American retailers like Levi's and Wrangler. The Associated Press reported this week that clothing manufacturer Tzicc has seen business dry up ahead of the expected tariff increase, sending home most of its 1,300 workers who have made and exported sportswear to American stores, including JCPenney, Walmart and Costco. David Chen, chairperson of the Lesotho Textile Exporters, has warned that the U.S. government's move to reduce the tariffs offer little relief for the struggling industry as their competitors have lesser tariffs. 'Other countries which we are competing against are already being charged 10 percent, which makes it difficult for us to compete on an equal footing," said Chen, singling out the east African country of Kenya as its strongest competitor with a more favorable 10% tariff. 'As a result, many factories will have to shut down,' said Chen. 'They had already been forced to lay off workers when the tariffs were first announced in April.' According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in 2024, U.S.-Lesotho bilateral trade stood at $240.1 million. Apart from clothing, Lesotho's exports also include diamonds and other goods. Classified as a lower-middle income country by the World Bank, nearly half of Lesotho's 2.3 million population live below the poverty line, while a quarter are unemployed. Lesotho's Minister of Trade, Industry and Business Development, Mokhethi Shelile, said that while several meetings with U.S. trade representatives led to a reduced tariff, more needed to be done to lower it further. 'We remain committed to pushing for a further reduction to the minimum tariff level of 10 percent, which is essential for our textile sector to compete effectively in the US market," he said. 'I have already communicated with the U.S. Embassy regarding continued negotiations.' Lesotho's neighbor and trading partner, South Africa, is also reeling after Trump announced a reciprocal 30% tariff for the country which is expected to significantly impact its agriculture and manufacturing sectors, among others. ____
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
Novak Djokovic lands co-owning stake in French football team
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.
