Ziggy Ojiegbe

Nigeria is among 17 crisis-affected countries eligible to access a new $2 billion humanitarian funding package agreed between the United States and the United Nations, aimed at saving lives amid rising global humanitarian needs.

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The funding will support global relief programmes in countries facing acute crises, with Africa accounting for a majority of beneficiaries. Alongside Nigeria, eligible African countries include Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

The agreement was formally signed on Monday in Geneva by the United Nations and the United States. It comes against the backdrop of growing strain on global aid systems following Washington’s abrupt shutdown of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) last year, which had provided the bulk of American humanitarian and development assistance.

Cuts to overseas aid by several European countries have further compounded the pressure, with African nations bearing a disproportionate impact due to their reliance on external funding for healthcare, food security, and emergency relief.

Despite the broader retreat from traditional aid programmes, the US has pursued targeted bilateral health agreements worth about $16 billion with more than a dozen African countries under the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher described the past year as “a very, very tough year” for humanitarian workers operating under increasingly difficult conditions. He said the new agreement, structured as a memorandum of understanding (MOU), marked a critical step toward addressing urgent needs.

“Millions, millions more will get that support that they so badly need,” Mr. Fletcher said, adding that the funding is expected to help save tens of millions of lives in the year ahead.

In addition to Nigeria, the agreement covers Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Ukraine, Haiti, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Mozambique, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Syria, Kenya, Uganda, Chad, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

Mr. Fletcher said the funding underpins the UN’s 2026 humanitarian plan, which aims to reach 87 million people worldwide. He noted that the plan has been “hyper-prioritized” to cut duplication, reduce bureaucracy, and improve efficiency across the humanitarian system.

The deal also reinforces the UN’s “Humanitarian Reset” initiative announced in March 2025, designed to deliver aid faster, more efficiently, and closer to affected communities. Accountability and reform, Mr. Fletcher said, remain central, with mechanisms in place to track every dollar spent to ensure it directly supports life-saving assistance.

While acknowledging differences between donors and aid agencies, he stressed that the agreement reflects shared priorities around urgent humanitarian needs. He also underscored the link between humanitarian action and diplomacy, calling for 2026 to be “a year of diplomacy and peacemaking,” noting that ending conflicts remains the most effective way to reduce humanitarian demand.

“This lifesaving announcement is not the end of the process,” Mr. Fletcher said. “It is the beginning.”