UN Suspends Humanitarian Air Service in Nigeria’s Northern States

The United Nations (UN) has suspended its humanitarian air service in northeast Nigeria due to severe funding shortages, raising fears of deeper disruption to relief efforts in one of the country’s most fragile regions.

The U.N. Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), managed by the World Food Programme (WFP), ended its fixed-wing operations last week after nearly a decade of transporting aid workers, medical supplies, and relief cargo into conflict zones in Borno and Yobe States.

According to UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, the service urgently requires $5.4 million to remain operational for the next six months. Without this funding, he warned, humanitarian operations risk being cut off from the very people they are meant to serve.

“In 2024, UNHAS flights carried over 9,000 passengers. Already this year, 4,500 humanitarian staff have relied on the service. Without donor support, humanitarian workers will lose safe access to remote, conflict-affected communities,” Dujarric told reporters in New York.

For nine years, the service has been a critical lifeline in a region where road transport is extremely dangerous due to insurgency and insecurity. The shutdown highlights the wider funding crisis facing WFP, which in July warned it may suspend emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in the northeast.

WFP’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Margot van der Velden, stressed the urgency of donor support, noting that humanitarian agencies cannot sustain large-scale operations without international contributions.

The UN cautioned that the suspension could have devastating consequences, with families in affected areas already struggling with hunger, displacement, and violence. Without air access, relief workers may be unable to deliver food, medicine, and protection to remote communities.

The statement warned that families could face desperate choices, enduring worsening hunger, migrating under unsafe conditions, or falling prey to extremist groups exploiting the crisis.

The shutdown comes amid shrinking donor budgets worldwide, as economic pressures and competing crises in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine divert resources away from West Africa.

Although the Nigerian government remains the largest domestic financier of the humanitarian response in the northeast, the UN emphasized that international support is still crucial to sustain relief at scale.

“For northeast Nigeria, where insurgency and instability have displaced millions, the loss of a vital air bridge may further isolate vulnerable populations at a time when they can least afford it,” the UN said.

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