By Asma’u Ahmad
The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund said Nigeria has received the largest allocation of $22 million from $100 million so far released for January.
The agency’s spokesman, Mr. Abiodun Banire, made this known at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) monthly brief.
Mr. Banire said that the fund was part of the efforts to cover for funding shortfalls impacting response activities across nine most neglected crises globally.
He said that the humanitarian partners would priorities food and nutrition, health, shelter, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) assistance to people hit by crisis in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
“A team from UNOCHA’s Funding Coordination Section arrived in Nigeria mid-January to commence groundwork for setting up a Nigeria-based pool fund. Once established, Nigeria Humanitarian fund will afford humanitarian partners an additional funding window to respond to needs of the affected populations in North-East region of
Nigeria. Six donor agencies have already expressed interest in contributing to the pool fund which is expected to come on stream around April 2017,” he said.
Mr. Banire also said that no fewer than one million people were assisted with food last month in the North-East.
He said that about 5.1 million dollars has been projected to face emergency and crisis levels of food insecurity in March.
“In January, the Food Security Sector provided cash or in-kind food assistance to more than one million new and pre-existing people-in-need. The assistance provided included 1.1 million people in Borno and Yobe who received assistance through in-kind transfers like food distribution and through cash-based transfers.
“Also, 51,171 people received agricultural inputs through the distribution of seeds, tools, fertilizer, poultry and restocking with small ruminants, as well as assistance for alternative livelihoods through small-scale enterprises and other cash generating activities,” Banire said.
The spokesman said that 3.4 million people, children aged six to 59 months, pregnant and lactating women required nutrition assistance in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. According to him, about 450,000 children aged six to 59 months of the number would suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
He said that 2,731 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition in the month under review.
