The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has warned that it will exhaust its supply of lifesaving food to treat severely malnourished children in Ethiopia and Nigeria within the next two months due to a severe funding shortage. The crisis has been exacerbated by cuts to foreign aid under the Trump administration, leaving 1.3 million children under five at risk of losing access to critical nutritional support this year.
In a press briefing on Friday, Kitty Van der Heijden, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, revealed that the agency’s supply of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) could run out as early as May, leaving 70,000 children in Ethiopia without treatment. “Without new funding, we will run out of our supply chain of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food by May, and that means that 70,000 children in Ethiopia that depend on this type of treatment cannot be served,” Van der Heijden told reporters in Geneva via video link from Abuja. She emphasized that any interruption to continuous treatment is life-threatening for these vulnerable children.
The situation is equally dire in Nigeria, where UNICEF may run out of supplies to feed 80,000 malnourished children by the end of this month. Van der Heijden shared a harrowing account of her recent visit to a hospital in Maiduguri, where she encountered a child so severely malnourished that her skin was peeling off. “This funding crisis will become a child survival crisis,” she warned, stressing that the sudden nature of the funding cuts has left the agency unable to mitigate the risks effectively.
The funding shortage has been compounded by a significant reduction in contributions from international donors, including the United States, UNICEF’s largest donor. On the first day of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, the U.S. imposed a 90-day pause on all foreign aid, followed by orders halting many programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) worldwide. These actions have disrupted the delivery of lifesaving food and medical aid, creating chaos in global humanitarian relief efforts.
In Ethiopia, the funding cuts have also impacted health programs providing nutrition and malaria care for pregnant women and children. According to UNICEF, 23 mobile health clinics in the Afar region have been forced to cease operations, leaving only seven clinics functional. This reduction in services has further strained an already fragile healthcare system, putting countless lives at risk.
UNICEF’s warning comes amid a growing global malnutrition crisis, particularly in conflict-affected regions like Ethiopia and Nigeria, where food insecurity and displacement have left millions of children vulnerable. Severe acute malnutrition, if left untreated, can lead to stunted growth, developmental delays, and even death. RUTF, a high-energy peanut-based paste, is a critical intervention that has proven effective in saving the lives of malnourished children.
The agency has called on the international community to urgently increase funding to address the shortfall and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. “We need immediate support to ensure that these children receive the lifesaving treatment they need,” Van der Heijden said. “The consequences of inaction are unthinkable.”
As the funding crisis deepens, the plight of 1.3 million malnourished children hangs in the balance. UNICEF’s appeal underscores the urgent need for global solidarity and action to safeguard the lives and futures of the world’s most vulnerable children. Without immediate intervention, the funding shortfall could have devastating and irreversible consequences for millions of families already living on the brink of survival.
