World has left North East children to starve, says charity

The charity Save the Children says the international community needs to do to help fight hunger, malnutrition and disease in the north east of Nigeria. Chief executive officer of Save the Children UK, Kevin Watkins, called for the international community to “get behind Nigerian government to mobilize resources on a scale that’s needed”. Watkins, who’s […]

The charity Save the Children says the international community needs to do to help fight hunger, malnutrition and disease in the north east of Nigeria.

Chief executive officer of Save the Children UK, Kevin Watkins, called for the international community to “get behind Nigerian government to mobilize resources on a scale that’s needed”.

Watkins, who’s been in Nigeria to visit sites of the charity’s work in the northeast, spoke of clinics where malnutrition is treated as “overflowing and overstretched”.

Each clinic has to manage up to 40 cases of chronic and severe acute malnutrition on lean resources.

“We are at a very, very real risk of seeing over 70,000 children lose their life over the next year,” Watkins told a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

“That’s avoidable. But if we carry on with the business as usual as we have now, that will happen.”

“When children are suffering, we all have a responsibility to come together and make a difference. Everyone who has the skills, technical knowhow and experience. It is time to act together.”

Funding shortfall

Save the Children was among the first international charities to provide assistance in Borno, where it currently works in five council areas.

But only one in three of all its proposals and appeals for humanitarian assistance in Nigeria have been funded.

The latest funding, mostly from UK, US and EU, brought $430 million, less than half what it needs for humanitarian assistance in the region—including work in nutrition, food security, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection and education.

"The international community should be getting behind Nigeria to help resolved this immediate human tragedy. Only one-third of humanitarian appeal for Nigeria has been funded, and there are three donors–United State, United Kingdom, and the European Union, and the question you have to ask is where are the others: where is Japan, Germany, France, Italty?"

Watkins’ plea is the group’s latest call for the world to do more to support the fight against the north east crisis, insisting the extent of need there has surpassed that of war-torn Somalia in the past.

Country director for Save the Children Nigeria, Ben Foot, said the reality of malnutrition in the 21st century was ridiculous.

“It is a disgrace that in this century, children still suffer from malnutrition and the international community has not stepped up to tackle the crisis situation,” said Foot.