Nigeria’s North East has 8.4m vulnerable residents
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria’s North East is inching close to severe food and nutrition shortage, the United Nations has alerted, citing 8.4 million residents in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe as vulnerable after 12 years in the grip of terrorists.
UN Resident and humanitarian coordinator Matthias Schmale told member-states in Geneva of the need for windows of opportunity in the zone, stressing that deteriorating food security and nutrition requires immediate intervention.
“This food insecurity is felt painfully across the region, especially as operations are so desperately in need of funding. In Yobe State, families have not received food assistance for up to eight months.
“Some people are left without food for days not knowing where their next meal will come from,” Schmale disclosed.
He said the March 2022 Cadre Harmonisé – a tool used to identify areas at risk of food insecurity and malnutrition in the Sahel and West Africa – projects that 4.1 million people will be food insecure between June and September.
Almost 600,000 among them are projected to be at emergency levels (Phase 4) characterised by large food consumption gaps reflected in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality.
This high risk period, the lean season, overlaps with the rainy season, a time when children are left vulnerable from disease outbreaks with weakened resistance if malnourished, Schmale said.
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1.74m children face acute malnutrition
Schmale insisted malnutrition among children grows increasingly dangerous across the North East where approximately 1.74 million children under five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition across in 2022, per reporting by The Nation.
More than 300,000 are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and at high risk of death if they do not receive urgent treatment.
He added that a multi-sector response plan has been devised by the UN and humanitarian partners to provide life-saving aid and prevent a potentially catastrophic food and nutrition situation.
The plan requires $351 million and is part of the overall request of $1.1 billion for the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan, which is severely under-funded at 19.6 per cent.
“I cannot emphasise enough, we need the resources today and not tomorrow,” Schmale pressed.
He appealed to the international community for immediate support to get aid to those who need it most.