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NGA | Jan 22, 2025

UN seeks US$910 million for humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s northeast

/ Our Today

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ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters)

Boys play outside a bakery in Dapchi, in the north-eastern state of Yobe, Nigeria March 22, 2018.
(PHOTO: REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde)

The United Nations will this week appeal for US$910 million to help tackle a humanitarian crisis in north-eastern Nigeria, which has been in the grip of an Islamist insurgency since 2009 and was hit by flooding last year, documents showed on Wednesday.

The UN documents seen by Reuters showed that 7.8 million people need help in the three north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, and the UN aims to help 3.6 million of them.

At US$910 million, it is the most expensive humanitarian crisis in West and Central Africa, ahead of Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, the documents showed.

An aerial photograph shows the flooding situation in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria on 12 September 2024. The World Food Programme provides lifesaving food assistance to the people, who have been affected by the floods. (Photo: WFP/Ozavogu Abdul)

Nigeria is also grappling with a cost of living crisis that has seen inflation accelerate to its highest level in nearly three decades, propelled by skyrocketing food prices.

The UN has previously said Nigeria’s northeast risks becoming a forgotten crisis as the humanitarian focus has shifted to crises elsewhere such as Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.

A joint report by the Government and UN in November said Nigeria faces one of its worst hunger crises with more than 30 million people expected to be food-insecure this year.

A woman purchases vegetables at a market in Katsina, Katsina State, Nigeria on 27th August 2024. Soaring prices, among other factors, are leading to Nigeria’s spiking hunger numbers.
(Photo: WFP/Abdul Ozavogu)

President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, including scrapping a fuel subsidy and foreign exchange controls, have been blamed for worsening Nigeria’s economic troubles. He says the reforms will put the economy on a stronger path to growth.

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