$20m UK project to stave off famine in Borno, Yobe

A $20 million project funded by the UK estimates it has helped bring food and nutrition to some 100,000 families in the conflict-ravaged northeastern states of Borno and Yobe. Implementers of the project—United Nations Children’s Fund, World Food Programme (WFP) and Action Against Hunger (AAH)—said they were working to shield families from famine-like conditions even […]

A $20 million project funded by the UK estimates it has helped bring food and nutrition to some 100,000 families in the conflict-ravaged northeastern states of Borno and Yobe.

Implementers of the project—United Nations Children’s Fund, World Food Programme (WFP) and Action Against Hunger (AAH)—said they were working to shield families from famine-like conditions even in time of harvest, currently affecting some 55,000 people in Borno and predicted to double next by middle of next year.

“We are building a system not only to treat children for malnutrition, but to help families who have been devastated by the conflict to prevent their children from becoming malnourished in the future”, said Mohamed Fall, UNICEF representative in Nigeria, at a joint press briefing with health commissioners from Yobe and Borno states.

“The fact that this is a multi-year commitment enables us not only to save children’s lives today, but to provide families and the most vulnerable young children with protection from malnutrition in the future as well.”

Since its start in April, the project has treated 30,000 children for severe acute malnutrition, given iron folate to 100,000 pregnant women, treated 60,000 children for diarrhoea and given vitamin A supplement to some 350,000 children—in efforts to protect children from diseases commonly fatal in the area.

A portion of the project, which ends in 2019, is teaching some 40,000 women, either pregnant or breastfeeding, how to feed young children in “the circumstances in which they live,” the implementers jointly announced in Abuja.

An extra part of the project to provide cash assistance to poorest families has reached some 7,000 families, enabling them buy foods to maintain proper nutrition after their children are treated for malnutrition.

WFP country director Sory Ouane said, “Access to cash has proven effective in helping internally displaced families to have a rich and varied diet, ensuring good nutrition for their children as well as enabling them to meet basic needs.”

UNICEF warns some 400,000 children aged under five in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa will suffer severe acute malnutrition this year, increasing their chances of dying from an illness ninefold.

Borno health commissioner Haruna Mshelia said the figures could become real, if nothing was done to save children.

This year, only some 130,000 children have been treated for severe acute malnutrition across the northeast.