4 million Nigerians expected to be in crisis through December 2019 ― FAO report

THE Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) disclosed that over 4 million Nigerians are expected to be in crisis or worse through December 2019.

The FAO Representative in Nigeria, Suffyan Koroma who made this known while presenting Cadre Harmonisѐ (CH) in Abuja, explained that it has been a regional framework for the consensual analysis of acute food insecurity situations across the West Africa countries.

The exercise which according to him started in 2015 has now been adopted by the Nigeria Food Security stakeholders’ as an early warning tool for preventing a food crisis.

According to the CH, more than 4 million people in Nigeria are expected to be in Crisis (CH Phase 3) or worse through December 2019.

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It further stated “In the current situation, (October to December 2019), 15 out of 16 states and the FCT were classified under the minimal phase of consumption.

“In the projected period (June to August 2020), the situation will likely remain the same except in some zones in Bauchi, Kano and Kaduna States and some Local Government Areas in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States which will be under crisis.

“There is, therefore, a general improvement in the food consumption outcome across most of the states including those in the North East.”

On Evolution of livelihood, the report said “The livelihood status is generally in the minimal phase for most of the states except for most areas in the Northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

“In Adamawa State, for example, the livelihood status of households is in an emergency in Gombi and Guyuk LGAs, while in Madagali, Song and Shelleng LGAs, it is under crisis.

“In Borno State, livelihood status is in an emergency in all the four LGAs with a significant proportion of the hard-to-reach population. But the depletion of the means of livelihood is not restricted to only the hard-to-reach population as most of the accessible LGAs also recorded a decline in livelihood.”

On nutrition, the report stated that the prevalence of acute malnutrition is high in Adamawa (7.2%), Borno (8.1%) and Yobe (11.5%).

“Both Adamawa and Borno have their Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates under pressure while Yobe is in crisis with Central Yobe currently having the highest rate of malnutrition at 13.9%,” the report noted.

The reported said mortality rate is under pressure in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. However, northern Borno and northern Yobe both have very high under-five mortality that are in crisis.