Food insecurity unfolds in northeast Nigeria, UN agency warns

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that a serious food security crisis is unfolding in the northeast of Nigeria, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Wednesday.

The preliminary findings of a new joint UN rapid food security assessment showed that more than half a million people need immediate food assistance and some 350,000 children in Borno and Yobe states are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition, Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"Humanitarian partners are scaling up their presence and response in the northeast and partnerships with state-level actors have been reinforced," he said.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 312,000 people have been reached with food and other assistance, 180,000 have been provided with protection assistance and 317,000 people have received water and sanitation support.

OCHA added that the Humanitarian Response Plan for Nigeria this year, which is requesting 248 million U.S. dollars, is only 14 percent funded.

In northeast Nigeria, farmers are reported to have fled the Boko Haram conflict and left their fields fallow. At least 17,000 people have reportedly been killed since the conflict began in 2009, most of them in Borno state. More than 2.6 million others have been forced to flee their homes. Endite