JUST IN: Mass Hunger Looms In North-East Nigeria
The United Nations has issued a warning about the escalating food insecurity crisis in Nigeria’s northeastern region, which is grappling with the devastating impacts of ongoing insurgency.
According to the UN’s resident coordinator, the humanitarian agency is facing critical challenges in securing the necessary funding to address the severe food shortages that threaten to trigger widespread hunger and potentially fatal consequences.
In April, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Nigeria jointly launched a $306 million appeal aimed at assisting 2.8 million people in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states.
The regions have been severely affected by a 15-year Islamist insurgency, with the appeal targeting the lean season, the period of highest food scarcity.
Mohamed Malick Fall, head of OCHA, told Reuters that despite Nigeria’s initial commitment of $11 million and another $11 million from the UN’s central pool, reaching the target was challenging due to hesitancy among international donors.
“We are far from where we want to be. That is something we are confronted by even beyond the lean season which is that we have noticed that humanitarian assistance to Nigeria is shrinking.
In the best-case scenario, Fall expects to receive just $300 million, a sharp decrease from the $500 million obtained last year, citing the economic effects of COVID-19 on major donors as the primary cause for the decline.
“Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan have all emerged in the past two years which makes it difficult to maintain the same pace of funding,” Fall said.
The situation is further worsened by Nigeria’s most severe cost-of-living crisis in decades, with inflation surpassing 33% and food prices rising over 40%.
However, he warns that without immediate intervention, the consequences of food insecurity in Nigeria’s northeast could be “catastrophic.”
Meanwhile, UNICEF data from April indicates that over 120,000 children have already been admitted for treatment of severe acute malnutrition in the region, surpassing the annual target of about 90,000.
“The cost of inaction has many folds with the most pressing being an excess mortality among children,” Fall said.
