World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered food and cash to more than a million Nigerians in conflict-affected zones in the Northeast since the beginning of December, 2016.
This means that over half of those in need of urgent humanitarian assistance have now been reached.
The milestone came as WFP ramped up its response in Borno and Yobe States, where as many as four million people are food insecure. The region has been devastated by years of violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency: in some areas, more than half of all children under five suffer from acute malnutrition.
“The needs are of course tremendous, and more has to be done. Even so, this is a dramatic expansion from the 160,000 people we were able to assist as recently as October. It is only thanks to the joint efforts of all humanitarian partners, including the Government of Nigeria, that we have achieved such high numbers,” said Sory Ouane, WFP’s Nigeria Country Director and Emergency Coordinator.
In areas with functioning markets, more than 170,000 people were assisted with cash. Nearly 800,000 people – most of them internally displaced, in camps or in host communities – benefited from food distributions; and almost 180,000 children under five were given specialized nutritious food.
Under its new Rapid Response Mechanism, which includes extensive use of helicopters and the pooling of logistics and telecommunications resources across the humanitarian community, WFP has managed to reach areas that were previously inaccessible.
“While it has been challenging to scale up and provide timely, life-saving food assistance, we are now looking at ways to assist even more people in need – as many as 2.5 million by April 2017,” Ouane added.
African Eye Report
