Agency Nigeria’s Resident Coordinator, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Mohamed Fall, has said an urgent action is needed to save millions of children from malnutrition in north-east Nigeria. Fall disclosed this known on Monday when he visited the Stabilisation Centre, a hospital dedicated to treating malnourished children, in Yola, Adamawa State, as part of activities to commemorate World Humanitarian Day . The theme of the 2024 celebration is #Act for Humanity.
According to the UN-OCHA, 4.8 million people are projected to be food insecure during the lean season, with 230,000 children at risk of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. A lean season response plan seeking $306 million to alleviate the crisis is only 30 per cent funded.
“It is only befitting that as we mark the 2024 World Humanitarian Day, we should all stand in solidarity with the little children whose lives are on the line. “With mothers who are struggling to feed their children, boys and girls who are missing out on a childhood. “Because they have been forced by circumstances to take on adult roles to help their families make ends meet, these people need our collective humanity,” he said.
He, therefore, called on partners to address the severe food insecurity and malnutrition affecting Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The coordinator emphasised that stakeholders and agencies of government should mobilise resources to support humanity and help the children in ne.