Posts in category: Humanitarian

About 700,000 of these children may suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

“So how far away are we from a crisis? We are in the middle of a crisis. We need to be clear on that. We are ringing the alarming bell. There are people close to or dying right now as we speak in north-east Nigeria.”

Those were the stark words of Matthias Schmale, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, in reference to the grim projection that hangs over north-east Nigeria: 2 million children under age 5 may suffer from acute malnutrition in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) states this year due to a lack of nutritious food. About 700,000 of these children may suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM). This is more than double the number of SAM cases in 2022 and the highest levels projected since the nutrition crisis in 2016.

Rising levels of complicated acute malnutrition

In Maiduguri, Borno State’s capital, there was 48 per cent increase in the number of children with complicated acute malnutrition requiring inpatient care during the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year.

This increase is visible at the stabilization centre, managed by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), in Gwoza General Hospital, Borno. Mothers line up with their malnourished children, and distraught mothers from nearby camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities rush in with their malnourished children.

The heat is sweltering. Sunlight filters through the windows, casting long shadows on the children’s beds, which are covered with paediatric scales and measuring tapes.

At one end of the stabilization centre, women quietly wait and observe. Their expressions are a mix of worry and hope as they watch their children being moved from one intensive care room to another for emergency life-saving treatment.

Aisha Mohammed, 26, clasps her eight-month-old son, Ali, in her arms. Ali has sepsis – a serious infection stemming from a compromised immune system due to acute malnutrition. His small, frail body bears the tell-tale signs of poor nutrition.

“I just want my child to get better,” says Aisha. “Life has always been harsh and continues to be so. During the time when we were held captive [by a non-State armed group], our diet primarily consisted of guinea corn and various soups prepared with zobo [hibiscus] leaves. We have been unable to eat the way we used to.”

Aisha is one of many people who arrived in Bama from inaccessible areas in Borno to find help.

Aisha’s son, Ali, receives treatment at the stabilization centre. Photo: UNOCHA/Adedeji Ademigbuji

There are places where people’s vulnerability has increased. In 2022 there was a huge increase in the number of patients treated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for severe malnutrition; more than 8,000 children were hospitalized for intensive nutrition care. And between January and May 2023, some 2,530 malnourished children were admitted for intensive care at the MSF stabilization centre. That’s an increase of about 120 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Since late April 2023, almost all of the stabilization centres in Maiduguri have been full, leaving many children waiting in line for an available bed.

The nutrition sector urgently needs approximately US$4 million to increase bed capacity (by about 220 beds), support the operational costs of stabilization centres and implement a harmonized nutrition response across Borno State during the lean season.

Additionally, $4 million is needed to ensure a secure pipeline of life-saving nutrition commodities.

Responding to the lean season nutrition crisis

Efforts are urgently required to prevent a food and nutrition crisis in north-east Nigeria from turning catastrophic.

Some 4.3 million people in the BAY states face the risk of severe hunger at the peak of the lean season, from June to August. More than half a million of these people may face emergency levels of food insecurity, with extremely high rates of severe acute malnutrition that could result in death.

In response, partners have developed a lean season food security and nutrition multisector crisis plan, drawn from the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan.

Humanitarian organizations urgently need $396.1 million to scale up food, nutrition, health, protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene support in the BAY states over the next six months.

The early disbursement of funds is critical to scale up preventive services and case management, including support to stabilization centres that are either non-functional or operating at suboptimal capacity due to a lack of funding. Delayed funding will have devastating consequences for millions of children.

The World Food Programme aims to provide 2.1 million people with emergency food and nutrition. The UN Children’s Fund and partners aim to provide nutritional services to more than 1 million malnourished children and pregnant or breastfeeding women. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN aims to assist 2 million people with seed packages for cereal production.

Nigeria is to reap about N589 billion (£272.6 million) from eight partnership agreements it signed with the United Kingdom yesterday in Abuja.

The programme implementation agreements signed by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, and the UK Charge d’ Affaires, Ms Cynthia Rowe, commit both countries to collaboration in critical sectors, including governance, climate change, education, health, and the economy.

Welcoming Rowe and his team to the signing ceremony at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, Bagudu expressed appreciation for the UK government’s support, saying it was a significant show of friendship.

He said the timing of the implementation agreement was significant given the downward trend of world economies. “Many economies in the world are going through turbulent times. Nigeria and the UK are not exceptions,” he stated.

The minister praised the UK’s spirit of partnership, which enabled it to support other countries despite its economic challenges.

Bagudu noted that some agreements would benefit more than Nigeria, explaining that they deal with global issues.
“Health is no longer a local issue. COVID-19 reminded us that we have a shared universe. Climate is a universal phenomenon. Governance is no longer a local issue. Governance failure in one country can affect other countries through forced migration, conflict or the spread of arms,” he said.

The minister spoke about President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s recent economic reforms, which he regretted had caused some discomfort among the people.

However, he explained that they were part of its Renewed Hope Agenda strategies aimed at macroeconomic stability that would stimulate local and foreign investments needed for the nation’s economic revival, growth, and development.

Bagudu said the agreements recognised that despite the best efforts of a country, it might not have all the resources it needed to meet its developmental needs, adding that Nigeria was confident that with working partners, it would overcome its challenges.

The minister thanked the charge d’affaires for her cooperation and assistance in ensuring the consummation of the implementation agreements, which he said were the 15th to be signed by the ministry within a month.

Rowe in her statement commiserated with Nigeria over the recent flood in some states and expressed how sorry the UK was over the incident.

She appreciated Nigeria’s long-standing cooperation and praised the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning for being an integral partner that had shaped the relations.

The new implementation agreements, she said, would complement the over £1 billion that had been spent on several programmes in states across the country.

“I am passionate about the UK’s close relationship with Nigeria and working with the Government to advance the country’s development agenda,” Rowe said in a short statement, adding, “The signing of these important agreements today builds on our support worth over £1billion, delivering real improvements for people in health, education, governance, our work with women and girls, and helping where there is humanitarian need.”

For decades, the implementation agency, the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), has been actively engaged in other sectors of the country’s national development, demonstrating a long-term commitment to Nigeria’s growth and stability. This includes human development, the Lake Chad Basin Conflict, UK-Nigeria People-to-People links, and economic transformation.

The FCDO has set four clear objectives for the partnership agreements. These include delivering honest, reliable investment, providing women and girls with the freedom to succeed, stepping up life-saving support in times of crisis, and promoting sustainable economic development. These goals aim to help Nigeria attain a more stable, inclusive, resilient, healthy and prosperous polity.

The star agreement, with a three-year budget of N324 billion (£150 million), is the Human Assistance and Resilience Program (HARP). It aims to deliver on the integrated review of an earlier programme, “Force for Good Agenda,” and provide life-saving humanitarian assistance in the Northeast.

The Nigeria Governance and Climate Change Programme (NGCP) follows it with an N84 billion (£83.8 million) spending plan. It aims to support coalitions engaging with the government on areas to help resolve climate and governance problems affecting the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians; increase state government income from internally generated revenue; mainstream climate action in the centre of state government policy, planning, and budgets; and strengthen election delivery and credibility.

The Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRING), which aims to reduce conflict and support Nigerian communities to better adapt to the effects of climate change, was also signed.

With a budget of N82 billion (£38 million), SPRING will support the reduction of rural violence and increased peace, security, justice and climate resilience for citizens in volatile regions of Northern Nigeria.

Other agreements are the Equipment Support for Health Training Institutions (ESHTI) N8.3 billion (£3.8 million); Climate Resilient Infrastructure for Basic Services (CRIBS) N41 billion (£19 million); Building Resilience in Nigeria’s Nutrition Stockpile (BRINNS) N26 billion (£12 million); and Strengthening Humanitarian Access in Nigeria (SHAN) N24 billion (£11 million).

The last of the agreements is the Manufacture Africa, which proposes to help drive the inclusive economic transformation needed to create jobs for the future by providing technical assistance to African countries to the tune of N151 billion (£70 million).

“I witnessed firsthand the devastation and untold hardship caused by the flooding, including the destruction of homes, businesses, and infrastructure.” – Fall

The severe flash flooding in Maiduguri during the night of 9 September caused by the collapse of the Alau Dam has displaced tens of thousands of people. Heads of UN agencies in Nigeria, together with country directors from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Nigeria Red Cross Society visited Maiduguri today. They met with affected people and Government officials in the Borno State capital.  They expressed their continued commitment to support Government efforts to aid the affected and to mobilize additional resources towards the lifesaving response.

Some 300,000 people have been registered by the Emergency Operations Centre of the Borno State Government in relocation sites mainly in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), Jere and Konduga local government areas. Many people affected by the floods, reported to be the worst in 30 years, had humanitarian needs prior to the floods, having been displaced multiple times by conflict and insecurity, and are now extremely vulnerable.

Led by the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Malick Fall, the senior UN and NGO officials met with the Governor of Borno, H.E. Prof Babagana Zulum. They expressed their condolences and solidarity with the Government and the people of Borno following the loss of lives and widespread destruction caused by the flooding.

The officials visited the Asheik Jarma Primary School and the Yerwa GGSS camps, two of the more than 25 relocation sites where displaced people are temporarily settled.

“I witnessed firsthand the devastation and untold hardship caused by the flooding, including the destruction of homes, businesses, and infrastructure. I also saw the suffering of affected communities,” said Mr. Fall.

He said that the widespread impact of the floods in MMC and Jere requires a concerted response by the UN and partners, in support of Government efforts.

“The flood affected people are experiencing a crisis within a crisis with the floods occurring at the height of a severe food insecurity and malnutrition crisis,” he said.

Across Nigeria, flooding has damaged more than 125,000 hectares of farmland just before harvests at a time when 32 million people in the country are facing severe food insecurity. In Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states alone, 4.8 million people are experiencing severe food insecurity with the lives of 230,000 children threatened by severe acute malnutrition.

Potential losses of harvests are alarming given the already skyrocketing prices of staple food, such as maize, beans, sorghum and millet, whose prices have more than tripled over the past year due to record food inflation.

The immediate needs of affected people in MMC and Jere include food, water and sanitation, hygiene, safe shelter and protection for the most vulnerable such as separated and unaccompanied children.

Drawing on existing resources, and in support of Government efforts, the UN in Nigeria and partners are responding by providing hot meals, facilitating food air drops in hard-to-reach areas cut off by flood waters, trucking water and providing water and sanitation hygiene services, as well as water purification tablets to stem outbreaks of diseases, such as acute watery diarrhoea/cholera. This in addition to providing hygiene/dignity kits for women and girls, as well as emergency health and shelter services, among other lifesaving interventions.

Additional funds are required urgently to save lives.

To ramp up lifesaving assistance, Mr. Fall announced the allocation of US $6 million from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund, with more funding in the pipeline bringing the total contribution to more than $8 million.

The Governor of Borno State, H.E. Prof Babagana Zulum, expressed his appreciation to the UN and NGO partners for the humanitarian support to the Government and to the affected people: “We are thankful especially for the use of the UN helicopters to deliver life-saving assistance including food and non-food items in communities cut off by the flood. I also thank the UN for camp coordination and camp management support.”

“Our priority is to rebuild the lives of affected people and to ensure that the displaced population does not stay for more than two weeks in the temporary shelters provided for them,” he said.

More resources and funding are needed not only during this emergency lifesaving phase but also in the recovery phase when people who have lost everything will need sustained support to get back on their feet.

Despite the escalating humanitarian needs, the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Nigeria, seeking US$ 927 million, is only about 46 per cent funded.

Across Nigeria, floods have affected more than a million people, according to the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA). Hard-hit states, besides Borno, including Bauchi, Bayelsa, Enugu, Jigawa, Kano, Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara. To support the Government-led flood response countrywide, the UN has approached the UN Central Emergency Response Fund for potential funding.

SOURCE: UN Nigeria