Hunger Looms As Humanitarian Crisis Continue in Nigeria/Africa

The people affected by conflict in north-east   Nigeria have endured hardship and displacement over the years. The conflict has eroded   living conditions, especially for women and girls, who are experiencing protection issues when trying to secure their basic needs such as food, shelter, and access to healthcare.

With over 182 million people, Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and the seventh largest in the world. The annual growth rate of the population is approximately 2.7 per cent, and more than half the population are under 30 years of age.

Nigeria is the 10th largest producer of crude oil in the world and achieved lower-middle- income status in 2014. However, conflict in its Northeast region has displaced 1.92 million people and left another 7.7 million in need of humanitarian assistance in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states. Three million of them are in Borno State, the epicenter of the insurgency.

The country’s human development indicators are poor. Persistent poverty affects more than half the population, most severely in the Northeast and Northwest regions. In addition, Nigeria is also subject to periodic droughts and floods; this has had an adverse impact on agricultural output and increased the vulnerability of populations, especially in rural areas.

Around 110 million Nigerians, representing over 60 percent of the total population, live below the poverty line. Primary school enrolment rates are estimated at 70 percent for boys and 60 percent for girls.

Since 2014, insurgent activities have added pressure to a fragile resource environment, deepened insecurity, hampered development and heightened the food and nutrition insecurity of vulnerable women and children.

Beset by violence, social disruption and economic hardship, thousands of Northeastern Nigerian families are in desperate need of food assistance.

The humanitarian situation continues to worsen as most displaced people do not have adequate access to food, water and other essentials.

Since May 2015, the CRIAD/AFAB Food Programme (CAFP) has supported national and state emergency agencies and humanitarian partners to assist people displaced by conflict. WFP has been transferring operational know-how, providing technical support to strengthen food security data collection, enhancing the emergency response at displaced sites (including through food distribution), and providing safe and reliable air transport services to the humanitarian community.

In November 2016, with support from International Ambassadors launched a joint Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) to supply food, nutrition and health support to people in hard-to- reach areas in Borno and Yobe states. The RRM includes extensive use of helicopters and the pooling of logistics and telecommunications resources across the humanitarian community.

Throughout 2017, we has been distributing food and cash assistance (including mobile phone- based transfers) to 1.2 million people monthly in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno, the states hardest hit by the crisis. Those receiving assistance included displaced people living in camps or host communities, as well as vulnerable members of host communities and people returning home after months of displacement.

Every day too many men and women across the globe struggle to feed their children a nutritious meal. In a world where we produce enough food to feed everyone, 690 million people still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Acute food insecurity affected 135 million people in 55 countries in 2019. Even more – one in three – suffer from some form of malnutrition.

Eradicating hunger and malnutrition is one of the great challenges of our time. Not only do the consequences of not enough – or the wrong – food cause suffering and poor health, they also slow progress in many other areas of development like education and employment.

In 2015 the global community adopted the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development to improve people’s lives by 2030. Goal 2 – Zero Hunger – pledges to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, and is the priority of the CRIAD/AFAB.

Every day, we continuously work to bring us closer to a zero hunger world. With our humanitarian food assistance, we provide nutritious food to those in urgent need. Meanwhile our complementary programmes address the root causes of hunger, building the resilience of communities, so we don’t need to keep saving the same lives each year.