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The United Nations has urgently appealed for approximately $160 million to address the dire humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s northeast, which the UN’s local humanitarian coordinator has described as the most severe in half a decade.
The region has suffered for 15 years from insurgency that has claimed over 40,000 lives and displaced more than two million people, devastating livelihoods and restricting access to farming and trade.
Officials stated that the requested funds are crucial for delivering essential nutrition and health supplies to two million individuals, including 600,000 children, across the states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe.
This urgent appeal is made against a backdrop of reduced funding from the United States, which has already strained the humanitarian response efforts in the area.
Speaking to the press, representatives from the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and UNICEF cautioned that the already fragile humanitarian situation could deteriorate further due to potential disease outbreaks or natural disasters like flooding, for which the region is ill-prepared.
The head of UNOCHA in Nigeria, Trond Jensen, stressed the urgency of the situation, emphasising the immediate need for support.
He conveyed the extreme desperation of the circumstances, highlighting that it is the worst he has witnessed in the past five years.
Jensen pointed out that funding cuts by the United States, particularly to USAID, have significantly impaired the ability to provide critical assistance to the affected population.
UNICEF Nigeria’s nutrition chief, Nemat Hajeebhoy, warned of potentially fatal consequences for children if they do not receive access to necessary treatment services.
