The United Nations says it has launched a task force to address the risk of food insecurity in Northern Nigeria. It added that the plan would require the raising of the sum of $250 million.
This was disclosed by a spokesperson to UN Secretary-General, António Guterres on Tuesday in a briefing to correspondents at the UN headquarters in New York.
In a reminder to the UN’s humanitarian colleagues in Nigeria, the UN said:
“Our humanitarian colleagues in Nigeria tell us that we, along with aid organisations in the country, have formed a task force to respond to increasing food insecurity in the northeast part of Nigeria.
“The task force is working with the Government to implement a comprehensive plan to address food security, nutrition, health, protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene.
“This plan needs 250 million dollars and aims to help the hardest-to-reach people to receive the food they need.”
The Secretary-General had earlier warned that without sustained funding, millions of people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, Northeast Nigeria will struggle to feed themselves. He also stated that the humanitarian community is working with the Government and local authorities to scale up the distribution of food in high-risk areas as 8.7 million people in Nigeria need urgent assistance, including 2.2 million displaced people.
He said millions of people in the three states would struggle to feed themselves during the lean season due to conflict, COVID-19, high food prices and the effects of climate change.
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Nairametrics reported last week that the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) identified Northern Nigeria and 22 other conflict areas as hunger alert hotspots for the next four months due to covid-19 and conflict.
