The United Nations has established a taskforce, in
collaboration with aid organisations, to address food insecurity in northern
Nigeria.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Antonio Guterres, UN
secretary-general, disclosed this to correspondents at the UN headquarters on
Tuesday, in New York.
Dujaric said the taskforce will be working with the Nigerian
government to address the food crisis in the region.
“Our humanitarian colleagues in Nigeria tell us that we, along with aid organisations in the country, have formed a task force to respond to increasing food insecurity in the northeast part of Nigeria,” Dujaric said.
“The task force is working with the government to implement
a comprehensive plan to address food security, nutrition, health, protection,
and water, sanitation and hygiene.
“This plan needs 250 million dollars and aims to help the
hardest-to-reach people to receive the food they need”.
Guterres had on Friday said over $1 billion will be needed to implement the humanitarian response plan in northern Nigeria.
According to him, only one-third of the fund has been
raised.
Guterres, who spoke through Farhan Haq, his deputy
spokesman, said sustained funding will be needed to avert food crisis in the
zone.
“Our humanitarian colleagues warned that without sustained funding,
millions of people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, Northeast Nigeria will
struggle to feed themselves,” Guterres said.
He said millions of people in the three states will struggle
to feed themselves during the lean season owing to conflict, COVID-19, high
food prices and the effects of climate change.
According to him, an estimated 4.4 million people, including
internally displaced people, are expected to face critical food shortages, with
775,000 people being at extreme risk of catastrophic food insecurity.
“This is the worst outlook in four years,” he added.
“The humanitarian community is working with the government
and local authorities to scale up the distribution of food in high-risk areas,
but a surge in violence targeting aid workers and assets has made this
difficult.
“Our colleagues tell us that 8.7 million people in Nigeria
need urgent assistance, including 2.2 million displaced people.”
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