UN agency releases $10m to fight acute malnutrition in Nigeria’s North-East

The United Nation Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), says it has released the sum of $10 million as aid funds to fight acute malnutrition in North-East Nigeria under its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

The aid agency, in a statement on Tuesday, said the fund was meant to provide urgent aid to victims in an escalating food and nutrition crisis in the region.

The UN noted that in the region, there are no less than 1.74 million children under the age of five who are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.

“This CERF allocation is the latest in a concerted effort to address the food and nutrition crisis the North-East region of Nigeria. In May 2022 CERF allocated 15 million dollars to support the catastrophic food insecurity and nutrition response.

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“In September, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) provided two allocations of 2.5 million dollars and one million dollars to enable humanitarian actors to provide urgent nutrition support in line with the interagency 351 million dollar-multisector plan to address the desperate food and nutrition situation,” the statement said.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who also spoke on the aid, said:

“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.

“The consequences of inaction are a matter of life and death as more than 5,000 are expected to die while those who survive could face lifelong disabilities,” Schmale said on the agency website.

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