The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has released a $10 million allocation to help save lives and get urgent aid to those who need it most in northeast Nigeria.
The region is struggling to endure a devastating food and nutrition crisis from over one and half decade of insurgency.
Approximately 1.74 million children under the age of five in that region are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition across the northeast in 2022. With a 34 percent increase so far from last year the northeast recorded the highest burden of acute malnutrition since 2016, and, over 300,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
In intervening, the CERF said “the consequences of inaction are a matter of life and death. If immediate action is not taken, more than five thousand children are expected to die. Those who survive will potentially face lifelong disabilities. Malnutrition puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of such infections, delays recovery and causes development stagnation.”
This CERF allocation will enable accelerated action to increase treatment capacity and early identification of acute malnutrition. The funding will be used for integrated prevention and treatment, including proven local solutions to improve availability, affordability, and/or accessibility to nutritious foods that protect women and children from repeated episodes of acute malnutrition.
This CERF allocation is the latest in a concerted effort to address the food and nutrition crisis. In May 2022 CERF allocated $15 million to support the catastrophic food insecurity and nutrition response. In September, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) provided two allocations of $2.5 million and $1 million to enable humanitarian actors to provide urgent nutrition support in line with the interagency US$ 351 million multisector plan to address the desperate food and nutrition situation.
These funds are being disbursed in the midst of an alarming lean season in which 4.1 million people across the north-east are facing the pain of hunger according to the Cadre Harmonisé food security and nutrition assessment.
Despite these efforts, there remains a massive funding gap. The Nutrition Sector has a lean season funding gap of $39 million, or 57 per cent. According to Mr. Matthias Schmale, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, “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.”
Meanwhile public commentators have also drawn the attention of CERF to the humanitarian crisis in the Benue state following about one decade of sustained attacks on rural farmers.
Reports say about 27,000 children are in the various Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs) camps across the states. At least 22,000 of these children are said to be acutely malnourished.
The close to two million Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Benue state have cried out to the Federal Government to come to their aid and also assist them return to their ancestral homes, the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Dr. Emmanuel Shior had said.
The Benue state governor, Chief Samuel Ortom had made a similar call for support from well-spirited individuals, organisations and non-governmental organisations.
