The United Nations (UN) has revealed that at least six million children under the age of five in northern Nigeria will suffer from acute malnutrition until April 2023.
At a news conference in New York on Wednesday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced this.
She stated that an estimated 512,000 women who are pregnant or nursing will also be severely malnourished.
Dujarric added that the funding for the current intervention plan in the north-east is less than 50%, indicating a need to improve humanitarian response in the area.
According to him, the recent flooding catastrophe destroyed over 650,000 hectares of farmland, worsening the nation’s food insecurity.
“Our humanitarian colleagues in Nigeria are calling on the government and the donor community to urgently unlock resources to support children amid a deteriorating nutrition crisis,” he said.
“Nearly six million children under the age of five in the north of the country are estimated to suffer from acute malnutrition from May until April 2023.
“More than 512,000 pregnant and lactating women are also estimated to suffer from acute malnutrition.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) claimed at a recent event in Nigeria that 100 children under the age of five die of malnutrition in Nigeria every hour.
Chief nutrition officer for UNICEF Nemat Hajeebhoy stated that if immediate action is not taken, an additional 15 million children are at risk of “wasting,” which is the term used to describe children who become emaciated due to malnutrition.
“Every hour in Nigeria, almost a hundred children under the age of five die. So by the time we are done with this meeting, 300 children would have died in this country,” the nutrition officer said.
