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The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that about 450,000 malnourished children in the northeastern part of the country are at imminent risk as food insecurity persists in the country.
The UN agency made this known in a statement made available on Monday.
According to UNICEF, almost 1.4 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition could die this year owing to famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
“Time is running out for more than a million children,” said Anthony Lake, executive director, UNICEF while appealing for a quick action.
“We can still save many lives; the severe malnutrition and looming famine are largely man-made. Our common humanity demands faster action. We must not repeat the tragedy of the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa,” Lake said.
In northeast Nigeria, the number of children with severe acute malnutrition is expected to reach 450,000 this year in the conflict-affected states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobi.
Fews Net, the famine early warning system that monitors food insecurity, said late last year that famine likely occurred in some previously inaccessible areas of Borno states, and that it is likely on going, and will continue, in other areas which remain beyond humanitarian reach.
UNICEF is working with partners to provide therapeutic treatment to 220,000 severely malnourished children in Nigeria.
Yemen, where a conflict has been raging for the past two years, 462,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition while 450,000 children were severely malnourished in northeast Nigeria.
“In Somalia, drought conditions are threatening an already fragile population battered by decades of conflict. Almost half the population, or 6.2 million people, are facing acute food insecurity and in need of humanitarian assistance.
“Some 185,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year; however this figure is expected to rise to 270,000 in the next few months.
“In South Sudan, a country reeling from conflict, poverty and insecurity, over 270,000 children are severely malnourished. Famine has just recently been declared in parts of Unity State in the northern central part of the country, where 20,000 children live.
“The total number of food insecure people across the country is expected to rise from 4.9 million to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the severity and spread of the food crisis.
“And in Yemen, where a conflict has been raging for the past two years, 462,000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition a nearly 200 per cent increase since 2014.
