UN food agency scales up aid to Lake Chad Basin

The World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up its assistance to reach more than 1.5 million people in desperate need in the Lake Chad Basin, a UN spokesman said here Tuesday.

"A brutal insurgency by Boko Haram has increased humanitarian needs in what was already a deeply vulnerable region," Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

WFP had earlier been assisting 1 million people in the area, but it is increasing its work, both because the needs are greater as more people are driven into displacement and because it can do more as further areas become accessible inside Nigeria, he said.

The Chad Basin is the largest endorheic drainage basin in Africa, centered on Lake Chad. It has no outlet to the sea and contains large areas of desert or semi-arid savanna. The basin spans seven countries, including most of Chad and a large part of Niger.

Across the Lake Chad Basin, the UN estimates that more than nine million people need humanitarian assistance, the spokesman said.

In the areas affected by Boko Haram violence, nearly 5 million face hunger, he said. "Unless life-saving assistance is provided fast, hunger will only deepen during the current lean and rainy season, which lasts until September."

WFP needs urgent support to continue to provide food and nutritional assistance to displaced people and host communities alike, with 122 million U.S. dollars required until the end of the year, he said. Endit