Children in Nigeria’s northeast may die of malnutrition – UN

Tens of thousands of children in northeast Nigeria will die of malnutrition this year unless they receive treatment soon, the United Nations said on Friday after reaching areas of the country previously cut off from aid by Boko Haram violence.

Over the last year Nigeria’s army, aided by troops from neighbouring countries, recaptured most of the territory that was lost to the militant group, which has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in the northeast.


“Improving security has enabled humanitarians to access areas that were previously cut off,” Reuters quoted Munir Safieldin, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, as saying in a statement.

“The conditions we are seeing there are devastating.”

The conflict, which has killed more than 15,000 people and uprooted 2.4 million in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has also pushed food insecurity and malnutrition to emergency levels in northeast Nigeria, according to the Nigerian government.

More than a half a million people need urgent food aid, as the violence has hit farming, disrupted markets and driven up food prices, several UN agencies said in a joint statement.

Almost 250,000 children under the age of five in Borno State will suffer from malnutrition this year, said Jean Gough, Nigeria representative for the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

“Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die,” she said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”