The United Nation, UN, has announced the allocation of $11 million to the Nigerian Government to mitigate the worsening food crisis in Northeast Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffith, on Wednesday on X.
According to Griffith, the allocation was drawn from the UN Central Emergency Response Funds (UNCERF) to help Nigeria fight food insecurity.
He stated that acute malnutrition in the country is heightening at a rapid pace. This is even the food insecurity is at its worst state in seven years.
Griffith said: “Acute malnutrition is increasing rapidly in North-east Nigeria. And food insecurity has reached the highest level in seven years.
“To provide immediate support to the most vulnerable, I’ve allocated $11 million from UNCERF.”
Recall that UNCERF is a UN programme that allows the international organization to offer immediate funding to those affected by disasters. These include natural disasters, wars, and other emergencies.
According to UN Under-Secretary General, the food crisis in Nigeria’s North-east, is considered a challenge that requires urgent attention.
This is even as the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, has identified food security as Nigeria’s major problem.
The organization pointed that the problem had been projected to worsen due to the insecurity and violent crisis ravaging parts of the country.
Recall that in 2023, the organization projected that over 31.5 million people in Nigeria would face acute food insecurity. This is between June and August 2024.
According to the FAO data, the prevalence of food insecurity as expected, is affecting more of the population than had been predicted in the year before.
“The data noted that population of affected persons in Nigeria would rise from 26.5 million to more than 31.5 million persons.
The World Food Agency in its Cadre Harmonize Report, also said Nigeria was grappling with multiple security challenges. And these had affected food production and access.
According to the report, other factors exist that will contribute to the alarming food insecurity in the country. These, it stated include, conflicts in the North-east, and North-central and North-west. Others are fuel scarcity, naira devaluation, currency crisis, rising inflation and consumer price index.
source: Premium Times
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