By Asmau Ahmad
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has announced the release of $10 million under the Central Emergency Response Fund for urgent aid to victims in a Northeast Nigeria food and nutrition crisis.
This is contained in a statement released by OCHA in Maiduguri on Monday.
The UN agency says no fewer than 1.74 million children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in the northeast this year.
“This CERF allocation is the latest in a concerted effort to address the food and nutrition crisis. In May 2022 CERF allocated 15 million dollars to support the catastrophic food insecurity and nutrition response.
“In September, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) provided two allocations of 2.5 million dollars and one million dollars to enable humanitarian actors to provide urgent nutrition support in line with the interagency 351 million dollar-multisector plan to address the desperate food and nutrition situation,” the statement said.
It noted that the consequences of inaction were a matter of life and death as more than 5,000 were expected to die while those who survive could face lifelong disabilities.
Mr. Matthias Schmale, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria was quoted as saying: “We urgently need to close the funding gap to rapidly scale up the response and implement immediate life-saving measures.
“For the thousands of children trying to survive, additional funding is needed today, not tomorrow.”
