The US State Department has provided $5 million to the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to tackle acute malnutrition in
Nigeria’s north-west geopolitical zone.
In a statement on Thursday, the US embassy said UNICEF would
use the funds to provide ready-to-use food, medicine, and other humanitarian
supplies for at least 70,000 children.
In May, UNICEF said Nigeria had the highest number of
malnourished children in Africa and the second in the world.
Nemat Hajeebhoy, nutrition chief, said 600,000 children were
suffering from acute malnutrition, with half of them at risk of developing
severe acute malnutrition.
Hajeebhoy spoke against the backdrop of an appeal for
funding by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to
tackle a food and nutrition crisis in northern region.
The UN agency sought $300 million to respond adequately to
the issue.
The appeal came as OCHA announced a gradual scale back of
its presence in Nigeria due to a funding shortfall after the US cut back on
foreign aid.
Last year, the US funded 47 percent of global humanitarian
aid.
After US President Donald Trump took office in January, he
froze nearly all foreign aid programmes, withdrew the US from the World Health
Organisation (WHO), and dismantled the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), a key player in global humanitarian funding.
In July, congress approved a White House-proposed
rescissions package that zeroed out 2025 funding for critical humanitarian
programmes, including $142 million in core resources for UNICEF.
UN agencies raised concerns over the global consequences of
the deep cuts to humanitarian funding.
The US embassy said the latest $5 million UNICEF donation
affirms America’s global leadership, strength, and compassion.
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