The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Thursday expressed concern about the deteriorating food situation in the northeastern part of Nigeria, reported CGTN Africa.
“In northeast Nigeria, intense rains, flash flooding, and periods of drought are some factors preventing farmers from accessing their fields and growing crops,” OCHA said in a statement on Thursday.
It is feared that the situation may worsen during the rainy season if diseases like cholera and malaria are not prevented or controlled, the statement said. Around 4.4 million people, including internally displaced people, could face severe food shortages and acute hunger.
“Some 775,000 people are at extreme risk of catastrophic food insecurity, the worst outlook in four years,” the OCHA said in the statement.
It said that the situation in northeast Nigeria is dire and due to a lack of sustained humanitarian assistance in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states, millions of people will struggle to get food during the critical 2021 lean season.
Esty Sutyoko, deputy head of the OCHA Nigeria, said a decade of violence and the COVID-19 pandemic could trigger extreme food insecurity in the area.
Notably, attacks by militant groups have displaced about three million people have been displaced in the northeast states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe.
The OCHA appealed to the Nigerian government, non-governmental organizations, and other humanitarian associations to come together and join efforts to tackle the rapidly worsening food situation in the region.
In related news, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control recorded 747 fresh cases of COVID-19 infections, the highest in any single day in the last five months, and four deaths on Wednesday.
Nigeria has reported a total of 176,577 coronavirus cases so far. The total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the country has reached 2,167.
Earlier this week, the Nigerian government received a shipment of 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the United States government.
