Famine will kill 75,000 children and Boko Haram are to blame
UN fund says crisis in north-east Nigeria worst in the world
LAGOS // Up to 75,000 children will die over the next year from famine created by Boko Haram.
The United Nations Children’s Fund said the severity of malnutrition levels and high number of children facing death made the humanitarian crisis in north-east Nigeria perhaps the worst in the world.
But donors have not responded to appeals for help.
Most severely malnourished children die of secondary illnesses like diarrhoea and respiratory infections.
“With famine, you actually die of hunger, ”said Arjan de Wagt, nutrition chief for Unicef Nigeria. Between 20 and 50 per cent of children suffer severe malnutrition in several regions.
“Globally, you just don’t see this” said Mr de Wagt. “You have to go back to places like Somalia five years ago to see these kinds of levels.”
Unicef yesterday doubled the amount of its appeal for Nigeria, saying $115 million (Dh422m) was needed to save children who could soon starve to death, but only $24 million has been raised so far.
The lack of funds meant about 750,000 people living in accessible areas received no help this year, said Unicef spokeswoman Doune Porter.
Most of the estimated 2.6 million people who fled Boko Haram were subsistence farmers who have been unable to plant for two years or more. Thousands returned this month from refugee camps to towns being secured by Nigeria’s military, but with the rainy season now drawing to a close, it is too late to plant new crops.
Four million people are in des- perate need of food. Of those, about 2.2 million people are trapped in areas where Boko Haram still operates or in newly liberated areas that are too dangerous to reach by road, said Mr de Wagt.
According to Medecins Sans Frontieres, the crisis has reached catastrophic levels for people who have sought refuge in towns controlled by the military but who remain reliant on outside aid that does not reach them.
The highest numbers of starving children are found in camps in Maiduguri, a city free of conflict where aid workers have been active for two years.
“The mortality rate is five times higher than what is considered an emergency, the main cause being hunger,” said an MSF statement. Displaced persons and aid workers recently alleged that food aid was being stolen in Maiduguri.
The MSF described the overall aid response, which Nigerian authorities are responsible for, as massively insufficient, uncoordinated and ill-adapted. Muhammad Kanar, area coordinator for Nigeria’s national emergency management agency, denied there were any cases of malnutrition in Maiduguri.
Officials from his agency were among several accused of stealing food aid.
“Many families are only able to eat once every few days and usually only watered-down porridge,” said Christina Corbett of the aid group Oxfam. But Mr de Wagt said Unicef continued to deliver some therapeutic food by helicopter and to train local health workers to treat malnourished children living in dangerous areas despite limiting activities after Boko Haram attacked one of its convoys in July.