UN Needs $400 Million To Stop Food Crisis In Nigeria
The United Nations says it needs $400 million to prevent as many people as it can from starving in the impending food crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, areas already on their knees due to the Boko Haram insurgency.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are needed urgently to save people most at risk from hunger as a food crisis breaks across the northern regions of Nigeria, the United Nations has said.
The UN needs $396 million to help plug the huge “hunger gap” in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, its representatives told journalists.
The money will be used to fund life-saving food security assistance, livelihoods, nutrition, water sanitation, health, logistics and protection over the next six months.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who made the call, is funded by the world’s largest economies. Sweden and the United Kingdom are the largest donors.
The hunger gap is the period between the previous year’s stores running out and the new harvest. This year, it is especially big because in addition to the land taken out of production due to the war with Boko Haram, crops were also ruined by floods.
The international organisation said $235.0m will be spent on providing food for 2.8 million people.
Conflict
According to the UN, $45.0 million will be expended on the water, sanitation and hygiene of 1.6 million people, $12.7 million on logistics while $65.8m on nutrition of 1 million people, $15.7 million on health of 1.4 million people and $21.9m on the protection of 1.8 million people.
Years of protracted conflict have stopped people from growing food products they do in the North eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, which has put the BAY states at the risk of facing hunger.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched the lean season food security plan for 2023 at the UN Office in Abuja on Thursday, May 18.
The plan is the intentional collaboration of government, NGOs, and the private sector, to jointly achieve a policy outcome. By involving multiple sectors, partners can leverage on reach, and resources, benefiting from their combined and varied strengths to achieve shared goals and produce better results.
More than three times the number of Nigerians who suffered from hunger in the last “lean season” are at risk of starving this year, according to new figures from the United Nations.
At least 4.3 million Nigerians in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe will be facing “acute hunger” in the coming months according to the World Food Programme (WFP) in a statement released recently.
Speaking at the launch, Matthias Schmale, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Nigeria, said that agriculture sustained 80% of vulnerable people in the BAY states, so with the unending crisis in the region, food security will be a problem.
A year ago around 1.4 million were at risk of those circumstances, HumAngle reported.
Support Our Journalism
There are millions of ordinary people affected by conflict in Africa whose stories are missing in the mainstream media. HumAngle is determined to tell those challenging and under-reported stories, hoping that the people impacted by these conflicts will find the safety and security they deserve.
To ensure that we continue to provide public service coverage, we have a small favour to ask you. We want you to be part of our journalistic endeavour by contributing a token to us.
Your donation will further promote a robust, free, and independent media.
Donate Here
