Urgent funding needed to avert catastrophic famine in northeast Nigeria

At least $396 million is urgently needed to prevent widespread hunger and malnutrition in northeast Nigeria from turning into a “total disaster”, the United Nations office in the West African country said on Thursday. the West.

“We are sounding the alarm that there are people close to hunger or dying (of starvation) right now in the northeast,” said Matthias Schmale, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Nigeria, in the capital, Abuja, while releasing the lean season food and nutrition crisis plan.

Security forces in northeastern Nigeria have battled Islamic extremist rebels who launched an insurgency in 2009 to crack down on Western education and to establish Islamic Sharia law in the region. At least 35,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced as a result of the violence, according to data from UN agencies in Nigeria.

A splinter faction of the extremist group Boko Haram, known as the Islamic State West Africa Province, has risen to prominence, dominating the fringes of the Lake Chad region where its fighters often target convoys and security force outposts.

SAHEL AFRICA REGION CALLS FOR HELP TO COMBAT VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND STOP ITS SPREAD

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The UN said more than 80% of those in need in the hard-hit region are women and children, making them more vulnerable to other forms of crime and violence. He warned that limited funding could increase the risk of famine.

Aid groups have reported unprecedented numbers of malnourished children in the conflict zone as hunger increasingly eats away at many families, including those in hard-to-reach areas. French medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said last month that the number of weekly admissions of children was two to three times higher than previous highs in the past five years.

Schmale, the humanitarian coordinator, described speaking with children who go days without eating enough and with mothers fighting for the lives of their malnourished infants.

“More than half a million people could face emergency levels of food insecurity with extremely high rates of acute malnutrition and death cases if there is no rapid and significant escalation. humanitarian aid,” he said.