The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitatiran Affairs (UN-OCHA) says it has released a combined $18 million to prevent widespread hunger and malnutrition crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, in the north-east of the country.
According to information supplied by the international agency on its website, the fund is in two parts and will only kickstart the response of humanitarian organisations “to swiftly expand food and nutrition assistance and provide clean water and sanitation, healthcare, protection and logistics.”
The agency estimates it will be able to reach only approximately 300,000 of the 4.3 million at-risk people in need of food assistance during the peak of the lean season.
“We are appealing for nearly US$400 million to prevent widespread hunger and malnutrition crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, in the north-east of the country.
“The funding will allow humanitarian organizations to swiftly expand food and nutrition assistance and provide clean water and sanitation, healthcare, protection and logistics.
“To kickstart the response, the UN has released a combined $18 million. The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has allocated $9 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Humanitarian Coordinator Matthias Schmale will be disbursing a further $9 million from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund.
“This injection of funding accounts for less than five per cent of what humanitarian organizations require to address the most urgent food and nutrition needs.
“Without a rapid and significant scale up of humanitarian assistance, more than a million people may face emergency levels of food insecurity in the region. Two million children under the age of five are likely to face wasting this year, the most immediate and life-threatening form of malnutrition. Some 700,000 children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition which means they are 11 times more likely to die compared to well-nourished children.”
SOURCE: UN-OCHA
