United Nations (UN) said $396 million is urgently needed to curb the widespread of hunger and malnutrition crisis in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states, Northeast Nigeria.
Gatekeepers News reports that the UN while appealing in a statement on Thursday, said more than half a million are at risk of emergency levels of food insecurity.
The international organisation added this category of people is faced with extremely high rates of acute malnutrition and cases of mortality if there is no rapid and significant scale-up of humanitarian assistance.
The UN said that an estimated two million children under five in the three states are likely to face wasting this year, describing it as the most immediate and life-threatening form of malnutrition.
It attributed the deepening food crisis to years of protracted conflict and insecurity, fuel and food inflation, the recent naira scarcity, and climate shocks.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale said, “I have seen firsthand the anguish of mothers fighting for the lives of their malnourished infants in our partner-run stabilization centres. This is a situation no one should have to face.
“I have spoken with children who described going for days without eating enough. Mothers who said their children go to bed crying from hunger. Families struggling to feed their families as they have gone for months without receiving food assistance.”
The Country Representative of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Fred Kafeero warned that the upcoming lean season may worsen food insecurity among vulnerable households without access to agricultural livelihood options.
According to the statement, the UN has released a combined $18 million to kickstart the response to the food crisis in northeast Nigeria.
