The Federal Government said yesterday more investment was needed to support the over four million persons experiencing hunger and malnutrition in the northeast, Vanguard reports.
The government and the United Nations urged international partners to support Nigeria with funds to address food shortage in the region.
Sugra Mahamood, Director of Irrigation Agriculture and Crop Development, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, spoke at the lunch of the lean season food security and nutrition crisis, multi-sector plan 2023 in Abuja.
Mahamood said many people living in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe categorised as BAY states have been battling a nutritional crisis fueled by the security challenges in the region.
“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that they have access to adequate and nutritious food to meet their basic needs,” Mahmood said.
“Our commitment is to mobilise funding and resources to urgently scale up our responses to the challenges at hand.”
Speaking on the impact of the food crisis, Matthias Schmale, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, said urgent interventions were needed to prevent the nutrition situation in the north-east.
Schmale said the situation was aggravated by the insurgency in the region which prevented food production.
Trond Jensen, head of the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the 2023 cadre harmonise estimated that about 4.3 million people in the BAY states were at risk of severe hunger.
Jensen said the situation would deepen between June and August, adding that $1.3 billion was urgently needed to support six million people in the north-east.
