Over 3 million Nigerians facing food crisis in North-East ― USAID

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has warned that with nearly 3.6 million people facing apparent food crisis in the Lake Chad region, the humanitarian situation is getting worse than in 2018.

In a situation report published in reliefweb on Monday, USAID said the deteriorating situation was prompting additional displacements.

“Nearly 3.6 million people in the Lake Chad Basin region—comprising Cameroon’s Far North Region, Chad’s Lac Region, Niger’s Diffa Region, and north-eastern Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states—will face Crisis—Phase 3—or Emergency—Phase 4—levels of acute food insecurity and require emergency food assistance from June– August, according to the most recent Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analyses.

“The figure represents a slight increase from the more than 3.4 million people who likely experienced Crisis or worse conditions during the same period in 2018.

“Of the 2019 total, nearly 84 per cent—or approximately 3 million people—are located in north-eastern Nigeria.”

The report added that heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding could negatively affect up to 400,000 vulnerable people including nearly 248,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs)—in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe during the May-to-September rainy season, according to a vulnerability mapping exercise conducted by camp coordination and camp management (CCCM) actors.

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However, it added that relief actors were planning to pre-position emergency relief commodities, reinforce and repair temporary shelters, construct additional shelters, and distribute flood mitigation tools in areas deemed at the highest risk of flooding.

“Across the Lake Chad Basin, violence continues to impact civilian populations and relief organization personnel.

“On June 15, a group of armed individuals attacked two international non-governmental organization (NGO) vehicles in Diffa’s Tcholori village, resulting in the deaths of a humanitarian staff member and a contract employee, the international NGO reports.

“On the following day, June 16, a coordinated body-borne improvised explosive device attack in Borno’s Konduga village resulted in the deaths of at least 30 civilians, including an international NGO community volunteer”, it continued.