The northeast is at the risk of severe food and nutrition crisis, the United Nations has warned.
It said the 8.4 residents in Borno. Adamawa and Yobe have been vulnerable after 12 years of insurgency.
UN Resident and humanitarian coordinator, Matthias Schmale, told member-States in Geneva, Switzerland of the necessity for windows of opportunity in the region.
He described the deteriorating food security and nutrition situation as an issue that requires immediate support.
“This food insecurity is felt painfully across the region, especially as operations are so desperately in need of funding. In Yobe State, families have not received food assistance for up to eight months. Some people are left without food for days not knowing where their next meal will come from,” Schmale said.
He pointed out the March 2022 Cadre Harmonisé, a tool used to identify areas at risk from food insecurity and malnutrition in the Sahel and West Africa, projects that between June to September, 4.1 million people will be food insecure.
Among them, according to him, almost 600,000 people are projected to be at emergency levels (Phase 4), which is characterised by large food consumption gaps reflected in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality.
This high-risk period, the lean season, overlaps with the rainy season, a time when children are left vulnerable from disease outbreaks with weakened resistance if malnourished.
He said malnutrition among children grows increasingly dangerous in the northeast. Approximately 1.74 million children under five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition across the northeast in 2022.
Of these, over 300,000 are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and at high risk of death if they do not receive urgent treatment.
He informed a multi-sector response plan has been put in place by the UN and humanitarian partners to provide life-saving aid and prevent a potentially catastrophic food and nutrition situation.
The plan requires $351million and is part of the overall request of $1.1 billion for the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan, which is severely under-funded at 19.6 percent.
“I cannot emphasise enough, we need the resources today and not tomorrow,” Schmale said.
He appealed to the international community for immediate support to get aid to those who need it most.