By Adedapo Adesanya
The United Nation’s top humanitarian official in Nigeria, Mr Matthias Schmale, has disclosed that out of the $1.3 billion in humanitarian funding needed in the BAY states (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe), only 25 per cent has been secured so far.
The UN official said that severe hunger affects 4.3 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, adding that the number of children under five at risk of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition has doubled in one year to reach 700,000.
Describing the situation in the region, Mr Schmale said: “I have been to Borno and the other two states several times; I’ve seen mothers fighting for the lives of their malnourished children in nutrition stabilization centres.”
He added that the children he spoke to complained about being hungry for days.
“Those of us who are parents must imagine what it’s like when you cannot ensure your children have enough to eat,” emphasized the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria.
The situation is primarily the result of more than a decade of insecurity linked to non-state armed groups, which prevents people from farming and earning income from the land, Mr Schmale said.
Another harmful factor is climate change. Last year saw the worst floods in ten years in Nigeria, which affected more than 4.4 million people across the country, not just the north-east.
The UN noted that soaring prices of food, fuel and fertilizers have exacerbated the crisis, and the response remains severely underfunded.
According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) agency, the 13-year-old ongoing conflict in the region has affected the nutrition status of children on several fronts, adding that two million children in the Northeast region are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition.
“A total of 24.8 million people, or 1 out of 8 individuals, are experiencing acute hunger this year in Nigeria’s 26 states and the capital, Abuja”, it stressed.
The WFP warned that the more people in need of urgent food assistance who go unassisted, the greater the risk of starvation and death among the most vulnerable, and the more people would be forced to resort to coping mechanisms such as survival sex, selling possessions and child labour.
