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| Some Internally Displaced Persons |
The Resident Humanitarian Coordinator of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nigeria, Mr Matthias Schmale has disclosed that over 4 million people are in need of sustained emergency food assistance in the North Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
The Resident Humanitarian Coordinator disclosed this in a statement, made available to journalists in Maiduguri on Friday.
According to Mr Schmale "the people I met in El-Miskin are are in dare need of assistance, an estimated 4.4 million people will need sustained emergency food assistance”
“This lean season (the peak hunger period between planting and harvesting from June to August) in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe States, according to the October 2022 Cadre Harmonise food and nutrition analysis. Partners I met with are ringing the alarm bells, months ahead of the lean season as worryingly malnutrition figures are starting to increase. Severe acute malnutrition is expected to double compared to last year, affecting some 690,000 children”, Mr Schmale disclosed.
The OCHA Coordinator revealed further that "government and the humanitarian community must redouble efforts to prevent this from happening. Financial resources are needed now to take the necessary action to save their lives.
Without assistance, cases of life threatening severe acute malnutrition will increase, and more people will resort to negative coping mechanisms such as begging, survival sex and child labour to survive"
“I am alarmed by the impact that continued conflict is having on vulnerable people, in particular on children, in north-east Nigeria.
Yesterday, I visited El-Miskin Camp in Maiduguri, Borno State, where approximately 7,200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have sought safety. The food situation is severe for many families in the camp due to lack of funding for operations. Women told me that they had not received food assistance in more than three months and they are struggling to feed their families.”, he added.
The Resident Coordinator went further by asserting that "some children described going for several days without eating enough. Mothers were telling me that their children go to bed crying from hunger.
In the Outpatient Therapeutic Feeding Program, they were also telling me that they are already seeing dozens of admissions of children with acute malnutrition. This is unacceptable.”
In 2023, aid agencies have received only eight per cent of the US$ 1.3 billion required to reach 6 million people identified for emergency assistance in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. I urge donors, the private sector, and other well-wishers to urgently provide additional funding and resources to enable national and international humanitarian organizations working with government to act early and at scale to deliver assistance to save lives, improve living conditions and protect those most in need ahead of the lean season.”
- YATAB Network