The international NGO Save the Children, based in London, reported that more than two million children and teenagers were victims of the famine in Northeast Nigeria. In turn, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the climate crisis combined with uncertainty, conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic may lead the region to the brink of a “food disaster”.
In recent months, the areas of Northeast Nigeria have been regularly hit by jihadists, whose attacks force farmers to flee and thus have led to a food crisis in this part of the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the decade-long conflict in Nigeria and millions have been forced into displacement. Now, severe food shortages may threaten many millions of people in Africa’s most populous country to starve.
More than two million children and teenagers are victims of famine in Northeast NigeriaNIC BOTHMA / EPA / PAP
Over two million malnourished children
Save the Children estimates that 700,000 children under the age of five are malnourished out of the 2.3 million indicated. “We are very concerned that this will lead to an even greater food crisis in the Northeast of the country,” said Shannon Ward, director of Save the Children, Nigeria.
In turn, in the opinion of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA), the climate crisis combined with uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic may lead the region to the brink of a “food disaster”.
More than four million people are at risk of food shortage
According to the UN humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, 4.4 million people are at risk of critical food shortages. The expert says that without humanitarian aid in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, millions of people will struggle to feed themselves.
“Parents take their children out of school to beg for survival,” Kallon said. “Women say they even resort to eating grass,” he added.
Main photo source: NIC BOTHMA / EPA / PAP