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From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The humanitarian community through its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has released $10 million US dollars (N4.340 billion) to address malnutrition and support other life-saving interventions in the volatile North East.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, disclosed this in a statement.
It said approximately 1.74 million children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition across the north-east in 2022 if they do not receive urgent attention.
“With a 34 per cent increase so far from last year the northeast recorded the highest burden of acute malnutrition since 2016, and, over 300,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” it revealed.
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The global body noted that the consequences of inaction were matter of life and death, calling for urgent attention to the dire food shortage in the area.
It said malnutrition puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections. It said such condition also increase the frequency and severity of such infections.
It explained the fund will enable accelerated action to increase treatment capacity and early identification of acute malnutrition.
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria Mr Matthias Schmale said some $39 million US dollar required to tackle challenges in the nutrition sector despite precious funding.
“We urgently need to close the funding gap to rapidly scale-up the response and implement immediate life-saving measures. For the thousands of children trying to survive, additional funding is needed today, not tomorrow,” he said.
The over a decade violence in the three northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, has displaced more than three million people according to a 2019 report by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). More than half of this population could not farm or return to their original homes/communities.
