UN, Partners to Fight Hunger with $396m in Northeast

By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman

The United Nations and its partners have made an appeal for $396 million to help prevent hunger and acute malnutrition among children in northeast Nigeria and to assist people during the upcoming lean season.

Farhan Haq, the UN Deputy Spokesperson, made the appeal during a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

Last week, it was reported that 4.3 million people in the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States were at risk of severe hunger from June to August, and child malnutrition was expected to rise, with approximately 700,000 children at risk of severe wasting.

“Without additional funding, humanitarian organisations will only be able to reach about 300,000 of the people at risk.

“As we have seen in previous years, early funding can help pull food insecure households back from the brink,’’ he said.

Regarding Sudan, Haq said that the number of people internally displaced by fighting had more than doubled in the past week.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported that over 700,000 people are now internally displaced by the violence, compared to 340,000 people as of last Tuesday.

Prior to the fighting, 3.7 million people were already internally displaced in Sudan, primarily in Darfur.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has stated that it will require nearly 13,000 tonnes of food to reach some 384,000 people across the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile.

The WFP presently has 8,000 tonnes of food stocks in Port Sudan.

The agency is anticipating the arrival of two ships carrying food and supplies to treat moderate acute malnutrition in the coming days.

Since restarting food distributions last week, the WFP has reached more than 35,000 people across Gedaref and Kassala, with distributions also underway in White Nile.