APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The United Nations (UN) and the Nigerian Government have appealed to international donors for more funds to urgently rescue vulnerable people in the North East of Nigeria from hunger and malnutrition.
Speaking at the launch of Lean Season Food Security and Nutrition Crisis, Multi-sector Plan 2023, on Thursday in Abuja, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, stated that the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is seeking $1.3 billion to support 6 million people, and that $396.1 million is urgently needed to deliver lifesaving food security and nutrition assistance to 2.8 million persons in the region.
“`More than half a million of these people will face emergency levels of food insecurity with extremely high acute malnutrition and cases of mortality predicted, unless a rapid and significant scale up of humanitarian assistance is undertaken.
“Approximately, two million children under five years of age, across the three states, will be acutely malnourished in 2023, and this will put them at a greater risk of dying from common infections, causing developmental stagnation,’’ he said.
According to him, efforts are urgently required to avert food and nutrition crisis in the northeast of Nigeria as years of protracted conflict and insecurity continued to prevent people from producing food.
He noted that hunger and malnutrition have eaten deep into the region and that there is the need for victims to get a survival strategy and the means to also earn income for food purchases.
In his speech at the event, the head of UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Trond Jensen, said that the March 2023 Cadre Harmonise (CH), projected that 4.3 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states in northern Nigeria, known as the BAY states, were at risk of severe hunger.
According to him, the situation will worsen at the peak of the lean season between June and August.
In her remarks, Mrs Sugra Mahamood, Director, Irrigation Agriculture and Crop Development in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), said that food security analysis provided valuable insights on the need for immediate and coordinated action.
Local media reports on Friday quoted Mahamood as saying that the people of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states had endured immense hardships due to various factors, including conflicts, displacement and climate-related challenges.
“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that they have access to adequate and nutritious food to meet their basic needs,” she added.
GIK/APA
UN, others seek over $396m to rescue malnourished people in Nigeria’s North East
