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Nigeria to face famine as UN plans to cut food aid
Food aids from the United Nation's body has been the major lifeline of people living in various IDP camps within the region.
Displaced families stand at the main gate of a camp for internally displaced people at Monguno district of Borno State on February 14, 2017.
United Nation officials noted that the program will have to cut its food aid for more than a million Nigerians affected by the Boko Haram’s insurgency if promised aid funding from the international community is not received.
According the Deputy UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria as reported in a French newspaper Le Monde, Peter Lundberg, only 15% of the UN aid appeal for North-East Nigeria- one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, has been received.
“Without sufficient financing, the will have to reduce its vital support, as over the next six months, 242 million dollars (£193 million) is needed to help 1.8 million people,” he said.
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While explaining the severity of the condition if the needed funding does not arrive quickly, “…half a million children in North-East Nigeria are suffering from severe malnutrition. Without treatment, one in five will die,”Mr Lundberg warned.
Nigeria is part of what the United Nations categorized as the largest humanitarian crisis since the world body was founded in 1945, with more than 20 million people in four countries facing possible famine. The other nations are South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
The total United Nations has appealed for $1 billion (N306 billion) in aid for Nigeria in 2017 in order to cater for the estimated 4.7 million people in urgent need for food in the crisis zone of North-East Nigeria.
The Reuters noted that the WFP's Nigeria office has not responded to a request for more details on what aid would be cut and when.
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