The United Nations has shut down a critical air service in Nigeria’s northeast due to “severe funding shortages.”
The U.N. Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), which is run by the World Food Programme (WFP), ended its fixed-wing operations last week after nearly a decade of flying “aid workers and supplies into conflict zones.”
U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that UNHAS cannot continue without funding and that “$5.4 million is needed to remain operational for the next six months.”
He noted that the shutdown is a sign of the “growing strain on relief efforts” as “donor funding declines.”
He added that the closure “threatens to deepen the country’s most protracted humanitarian emergencies.”
The U.N. warned that without air links, aid workers lose “safe access to remote conflict-affected communities,” and the “humanitarian response in north-east Nigeria risks being cut off from the very people it is meant to serve.”
The closure may force vulnerable families into “desperate choices” such as migrating unsafely or joining extremist groups.
The Nigerian government has provided significant support and is now the “largest financier” of the emergency response, but the U.N. stressed that international contributions “remain crucial to sustaining operations at scale.”
The U.N. appeal comes as humanitarian agencies worldwide face shrinking budgets due to “competing crises from Gaza to Sudan to Ukraine.”
