Nigeria desperate for food, 75,000 kids face starvation

LAGOS, NIGERIA — As many as 75,000 children will die over the next year in faminelike conditions created by Boko Haram if donors don’t respond quickly, the U.N. Children’s Fund is warning. That’s far more than the 20,000 people killed in the seven-year Islamic uprising.

The severity of malnutrition levels and high number of children facing death make the humanitarian crisis confronting northeastern Nigeria perhaps the worst in the world, according to Arjan de Wagt, nutrition chief for UNICEF in Nigeria. He said children already are dying, but donors are not responding.

Most severely malnourished children die of secondary illnesses like diarrhea and respiratory infections, de Wagt told The Associated Press. “But with famine, you actually die of hunger,” and that is what is happening, he said.

Severe malnutrition is being found in 20, 30 and even 50 per cent of children in pockets of the region, he said.

UNICEF on Thursday doubled the amount of its appeal for Nigeria, saying $115 million is needed to save children whose “lives are literally hanging by a thread.” Only $24 million has been raised so far, the agency said.

The crisis has reached “catastrophic levels” for people in towns controlled by the military.

“Many families are only able to eat once every few days and usually only watered-down porridge,” said Oxfam aid group spokesperson Christina Corbett.

“They are going to bed hungry and waking up with no way to change that.”