Flooding: Food crisis looms – NEDC boss

The Managing Director of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali, yesterday said the recent flooding, which destroyed many farmlands, would cause food insecurity. He spoke in Abuja while receiving the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed. Death of ex-commissioner’s friend: Family drags CP to police commission ‘Tobacco kills 28,000 […]

The Managing Director of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali, yesterday said the recent flooding, which destroyed many farmlands, would cause food insecurity.

He spoke in Abuja while receiving the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed.

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He said: “The crisis created by the flood has led to most of the farmlands that will be cultivated in the North East destroyed. This will definitely create a huge gap in food safety and security. 

“What’s happening internationally is another disaster which we are yet to see the total effect. For instance, the fight between Russia and Ukraine, we all know the consequences of it all over the world, culminating in a loaf of bread sold for N500 to now cost N800.

 “So, this will directly or indirectly affect our operations because those people, either they’re in IDP camps or outside, will feel the pain without knowing.”

Alkali said the NEDC was committed to alleviating the sufferings of IDPs in the country and assured to team up with NEMA to assist in its humanitarian efforts.  

On his part, Ahmed said NEMA was daily feeding over 170,000 in the North East.

He said the insurgency in the North West and North Central, the uprising in South East, coupled with the flood disaster, had made it difficult for the agency to attend to the burgeoning demands.