By Njadvara Musa
United Nations (UN) has earmarked $20 million (N13.2 billion) for humanitarian response to the worsening food security and nutrition crisis in the Northeast.
According to the UN, the $20 million fund will be raised from Central Emergency Response Fund (CER) and the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF).
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja, said: “In support of government efforts, some $9 million in CERF funding and a complementary $11 million NHF allocation will go towards the coordination of multi-sectorial response.”
He warned that the response was aimed at preventing deterioration due looming famine conditions in the region caused by conflict.
Besides the famine, he noted that about 700,000 children are likely to suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, this year.
Lamenting malnutrition among children, he said: “This is more than double the number of SAM cases in 2022 and four times the number of cases in 2021.”
He further disclosed that over 500, 000 people in the insurgency-affected three states have been projected to face emergency levels of food insecurity.
According to him, this is a step away from famine, as from June to August is the peak of the lean season, as indicated in the March 2023 Cadre Harmonisé Analysis.
Breaking down the disbursing of the $20 million, he said, among others: “From the CERF allocation, $6 million will go to the World Food Programme for food security interventions for 95,000 extremely food-insecure people in three garrison towns of Borno State.
“Some $2 million (N1.32 billion) will go to the UN Children’s Fund for the prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition (including providing ready-to-eat therapeutic food and Tom Brown solutions).”
Credit: THE GUARDIAN.
