Millions at risk from African famine
Aid agencies must get food to close to three million people by July to avert a famine in Africa's Lake Chad region caused by drought, chronic poverty and Islamist insurgents Boko Haram, the United Nations said on Friday as it launched a funding appeal.
International donors at a conference in Oslo pledged $672 million for the next three years in new money, $457 million of which was for 2017, Norway’s foreign minister said.
The United Nations, which says it needs $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid for the region this year, had previously raised $19 million toward this target.
The presence of Boko Haram militants has prevented farmers from planting crops or accessing Lake Chad to provide water for their animals. Fishermen have also been prevented from accessing the lake which is shared between Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad, aid experts said.
Boko Haram militants have killed around 15,000 people and forced more than two million from their homes during a seven-year insurgency.
Despite having been pushed out of the vast swathes of territory they controlled in 2014, their attacks and the counter operations by Nigerian authorities still disrupt vital economic activity, officials said.
The most urgent need is to reach 2.8 million people with rice or sorghum, or cash to buy supplies, by July, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said.
“We are in the lean season and people’s supplies are depleted. We need to avoid a famine,” Abdou Dieng, the WFP’s country director for West and Central Africa, told Reuters.
Overall 10.7 million people – roughly two out of three inhabitants – need humanitarian help such as food, water, education or protection, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
The United States, a major aid donor to the region in previous years, did not pledge any money on Friday.