By Linus Aleke
The Federal Government (FG), in collaboration with national and international partners, last week, launched an appeal, seeking US$306 million to fast-track food assistance, nutrition supplies and services, clean water, healthcare, and protection support to people in severe need during the period.
This appeal followed the deteriorating food security and nutrition crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, states this lean season, May to September 2024.
In a statement jointly signed by the spokespersons of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA), Ms. Ann Weru,
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mr. Rajat Madhok, and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (FAO), Mr. David Tsokar, the United Nations, said that in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, some 4.8 million people are estimated to be facing severe food insecurity, the highest levels in seven years, according to the Government-led Cadre Harmonisé analysis released in March this year.
The UN further averred that children, pregnant and lactating women, older persons, and people living with disabilities are among those who are most vulnerable.
It added that the appeal, for the lean season food security and nutrition crisis multi sector plan, is targeting 2.8 million of these people for urgent interventions.
According to the statement, “This food and nutrition crisis, which has been compounded by soaring food prices, is primarily due to continued conflict and insecurity in the BAY states, alongside climate change impacts. It threatens to become catastrophic without immediate and coordinated intervention. The prices of staple foods like beans and maize have increased by 300 to 400 per cent over the past year following the removal of the fuel subsidy and the depreciation of the naira. Inflation is outpacing the ability of families to cope, making essential food items unaffordable.
Malnutrition rates are of great concern. Approximately 700,000 children under five are projected to be acutely malnourished over the next six months, including 230,000 who are expected to be severely acutely malnourished and at risk of death if they do not receive timely treatment and nutrition support”.
Before this joint appeal fund to tackle food security and nutrition crisis, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA), in June 2023, raised alarm over looming nutrition crisis in North East, Nigeria.
Matthias Schmale, the then Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, queried, “how far away are we from a crisis?”
In answering his own question, Mr. Schmale, said: “We are in the middle of a crisis. We need to be clear on that. We are ringing the alarming bell. There are people close to or dying right now as we speak in north-east Nigeria”.
He further noted that two million children under age five may suffer from acute malnutrition in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states last year due to a lack of nutritious food.
About 700,000 of these children, he said, may suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
This, he added, is more than double the number of severe acute malnutrition cases in 2022 and the highest levels projected since the nutrition crisis in 2016.
An article with the caption, “North-east Nigeria: Ringing the alarm bell on the malnutrition crisis,” published on OCHA’s website, disclosed that nutrition surveillance data collected in March and April 2023 indicated a critical nutrition situation in five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Borno State: Bama, Gwoza, Magumeri, Ngala and Nganzai.
It also posited that about a quarter of the children with the most immediate and life-threatening form of acute malnutrition live in extremely hard-to-reach locations due to conflict and/or physical impediments.
As it is said in local parlance, double tragedy for the dead body, but speaking at the launch of the latest plan, the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Zubaida Umar said the mobilization of funding and resources to address this lean season food security and nutrition crisis envisaged in the north-eastern part of the country is a step in the right direction in complementing the Federal Government’s efforts to prevent the deaths of people as a result of malnutrition-related complications, adoption of negative coping mechanisms and other health related issues, among others.
Announcing the release of $11 million from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund to jumpstart the emergency response, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mohamed Malick Fall said, expressed confident that they have the capacity to address these increased needs in support of Government efforts.
He added, “what we need now are resources. Joining hands together, pooling resources, to save lives and stop the suffering”.
Dr Rownak Khan, the Acting Representative of UNICEF Nigeria, said that UNICEF is deeply concerned about the escalating food security and nutrition crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
According to him, “The alarming rise in severe acute malnutrition among children underscores the urgent need for immediate action. This year alone, we have seen around 120,000 admissions for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition with complications, far exceeding our estimated target of 90,000. We must ensure that lifesaving nutrition commodities reach every child in need. This is not just a call to action; it is a race against time to save lives and protect the future of millions of vulnerable children”.
While noting that immediate actions need to be taken for longer term results, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative ad interim in Nigeria, Dominique Koffy Kouacou, said, that given the urgent situation, urgent interventions are required to support short-, medium- and long-term needs of vulnerable populations.
He said: “The focus therefore needs to be on building resilience supported by emergency agriculture, including seeds, fertilizer, livestock and technical training, and developing agribusiness for better production and better nutrition”.
On his part, the World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director, David Stevenson, said: “We need to get out of conflict into solutions, and the solution is peace and production. Meanwhile, there remains a conflict in the north-east that requires our collective urgent assistance. We are prioritizing access to nutritious foods by providing cash-based transfers, specialized nutritious foods, and by supporting local food solutions”.
Also, the statement noted that with the lean season coinciding with the rainy season, there is a need for collective efforts to improve access to drinking water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene to combat the spread of infectious diseases, particularly among the more than two million internally displaced persons in camps and overcrowded settlements in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
This, the statement added, is crucial to help break the vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition that threatens the lives of young children and other vulnerable people.
The UN said: “Alongside efforts to protect lives, there is also a need to strengthen people’s resilience by supporting agricultural livelihoods which sustain over 80 per cent of the vulnerable people across the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. Limited funding for agricultural livelihoods continues to perpetuate cyclical food insecurity. This is the fourth time that the UN and humanitarian lpartners are launching an operational plan for the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states pointing to the need to address the root causes of hunger and malnutrition. This includes but is not limited to advancing peace-building efforts, improving access to essential health care services, supporting food production systems, enhancing social protection services, and mitigating climate change shocks.
Regrettably, international relations experts are of the view that the economic interest of military industrial complex may continue to fuel crisis around the globe and frustrate genuine efforts to address the root causes enumerated above.
Nevertheless, the United Nations, concluded that the lean season food security and nutrition crisis multi sector plan is part of the 2024 UN-coordinated Humanitarian Response Plan for Nigeria.
