The United Nations (UN) said on Monday May 5, 2025 on Monday, needed $ 160 million to provide a “Vital help” Millions of people in northeast Nigeria, where a double food and security crisis rages.
“I cannot describe how desperate the situation is. It’s the worst I saw in five years “said Trond Jensen, who heads the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office (UNOCHA) in Nigeria at a press conference in Abuja on Monday morning.
Northeast Nigerian has been plagued by a jihadist insurrection for 16 years which has left more than 40,000 people dead and has moved more than 2 million people.
The fighting destroyed farms and obstructing access to agricultural land and markets, causing a major food crisis.
The UNOCHA has alerted to the need to provide immediate food assistance and health care essential to two million people, including 600,000 children, in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
“There is an emergency”said Jensen.
“We need help now, not next week, nor next month”he insisted alongside managers of other United Nations agencies including the World Food Program (PAM), UNICEF and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The situation could worsen in the event of an epidemic or natural disaster such as a flood, while the rainy season is approaching.
In October 2024, the World Bank and the UN indicated that more than half of the population of Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent, now lived under the poverty line, or 129 million inhabitants.
Jensen stressed that the American aid cuts had a considerable impact on the ability to provide essential services to the region’s population.
The International Monetary Fund, for its part, said in mid-April that the level of poverty and food insecurity in Nigeria remain at high levels two years after the launch of the reforms undertaken by the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
When he came to power in May 2023, President Tinubu initiated structural reforms – such as the end of fuel grants and the liberalization of the national currency – in order to attract foreign investments.
But the immediate effects were an inflation above 30 % in 2024 and a collapse of the Naira, plunging the country into its worst economic crisis for three decades.
With AFP
