UN, FG to provide food assistance to 3.9m people in North-East

The United Nations on Thursday said it had put measures in place to provide food assistance to about 3.9 million displaced persons in the North-East and Lake Chad Basin.

Mr Edward Kallon, the Country Coordinator, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), disclose this in an interaction with people at the Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Maiduguri.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the UN interactive session with displaced persons is part of activities to commemorate the 2017 World Humanitarian Day.

Kallon said that the UN, in collaboration with Federal Government and donor agencies, would provide food assistance to households displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.

“This crisis is big; there are about 5.2 million people that need food assistance every day.

“The humanitarian community working with the government are providing food assistance to close to 2.4 million people right now.

“We are also very happy that the government of Nigeria has also increased its assistance and thereby reaching another 1.5 million people.

“The international community, the government of Borno, the Federal Government of Nigeria and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) et cetera.

“We are working round the clock and we will be reaching at least 3.9 million people with food assistance.’’

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Kallo disclosed that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA) had also distributed fertilisers, seeds and inputs to 140, 000 households in the liberated communities to enable them to return to their farms.

According to him, other agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF were also providing shelter to the affected persons to enable them return home and re-build their lives.