One million people in northeastern Nigeria are at risk due to cuts in food aid, according to the World Food Programme. If financing is not secured "within weeks," at least one million people in northeastern Nigeria may lose access to emergency food and nutrition assistance. Nigeria is experiencing one of the worst hunger crises in recent memory, according to a news release posted on the World Food Programme's website on Thursday.
The biggest humanitarian organization in the world, WFP, helps people recover from conflict, natural disasters, and the effects of climate change by saving lives in emergencies and utilizing food assistance to create pathways to peace, stability, and prosperity.
The United Nations World Food Programme is raising the alarm because, in the absence of immediate fresh financing, over a million people in northeastern Nigeria may lose access to essential food and nutrition assistance within weeks. The statement said, "WFP is being forced to slash food assistance from 1.3 million people down to 72,000 people, as violence is surging across the north."
"The displaced people will flee the camps in a last-ditch effort to survive if WFP is unable to continue assisting them.
According to David Stevenson, WFP's Nigeria Country Director, "they will try to migrate, or they may join insurgent groups to feed themselves and their families." Nearly 35 million people are expected to experience acute and severe food insecurity throughout the lean season, according to the WFP.
They include about 15,000 Borno residents who run the risk of experiencing catastrophic hunger, which is just a step away from famine.
The crisis is developing in the midst of fresh conflict in the north, which has damaged food supplies, uprooted families, and decimated rural communities. "We shouldn't cease providing food aid right now.
For the most vulnerable individuals who have been compelled to leave their homes in search of food and shelter, this will have disastrous humanitarian, security, and economic repercussions.
According to Stevenson, "humanitarian solutions are still possible and are one of the last stabilizing forces preventing mass displacement and regional spillover."
According to the WFP, hunger is at its worst point in ten years. It also stated that to continue operating in the Northeast for the next six months, it urgently needs $129 million.
The international food agency threatened to cease operations if the money wasn't paid.