The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has
announced that, at least 2.4 million people in the northeast are under threat
of short food supply. The agency said the shortage is due to the activities of
Boko Haram insurgency, which has reduced farming and food production in the region.
The information, which was posted by Mr Bruce Isaacson on
the agency’s website, said the northeast needs urgent food and humanitarian
aids.
He warned that the situation could become more severe if
urgent steps were not taken to salvage it.
“We are faced with the challenges of ending hunger and
malnutrition as food production adjusts to global warming. Nigerian government
says violence has pushed food insecurity and malnutrition to emergency levels
in northeast,” he said.
He warned that the survival of people was of great concern,
adding it could lead to famine in the area’s most isolated places.
According to him, “It is difficult to judge the level of
hunger due to the lack of access and data. A regional offensive last year drove
Boko Haram from much of the territory it held in the area, undermining its
seven-year campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate.”
“But the militants have since struck back with suicide
bombings and hit and run attacks on civilians. The violence, which has killed
more than 15,000 people and uprooted 2.4 million in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and
Cameroon, has pushed food insecurity and malnutrition to emergency levels in
the northeast,” he added.
The USAID official stressed that people are struggling to
obtain food due to lack of humanitarian access, disruption to markets and
agriculture and rising prices caused by the naira’s depreciation.
He said in the past, “improving security had enabled aid
agencies to reach areas that were previously cut off, but many remain
unreachable due to the ongoing violence and lack of security.”
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in May announced it
would provide food aid to more than 400,000 people to avert the threat of
famine in the area as the lean season approaches.
Corroborating, Luca Russo of the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) said, “Even if there is no full famine situation in those
areas, it’s clear the situation is extremely dramatic.
The UN Children’s Agency has also said the people are
already in a situation, which is very difficult to reverse in terms of
degradation of livelihoods and nutrition.
“Tens of thousands of children in northeast may die of
malnutrition this year unless they receive treatment soon,” it warned.
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