The United Nation’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has announced the release of 10 million dollars under the Central Emergency Response Fund for urgent aid to victims in the North-East Nigeria food and nutrition crisis.
This is contained in a statement by OCHA in Maiduguri on Monday.
The UN says no less than 1.74 million children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in the North-East this year.
“This CERF allocation is the latest in a concerted effort to address the food and nutrition crisis. In May 2022 CERF allocated 15 million dollars to support the catastrophic food insecurity and nutrition response. “In September, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) provided two allocations of 2.5 million dollars and one million dollars to enable humanitarian actors to provide urgent nutrition support in line with the interagency 351 million dollar-multisector plan to address the desperate food and nutrition situation,” the statement said.
It noted that the consequences of inaction were a matter of life and death as more than 5,000 were expected to die while those who survive could face lifelong disabilities.
Mr Matthias Schmale, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria was quoted as saying, “We urgently need to close the funding gap to rapidly scale up the response and implement immediate life-saving measures.
“For the thousands of children trying to survive, additional funding is needed today, not tomorrow.”