The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in October 2021 food security and nutrition analysis conducted in 20 states says about 12 million people in Nigeria are faced with hunger due to Insecurity and Covid-19.
Mr David Tsokar, the communication officer of FAO, said on Friday in Abuja that about 19 percent of affected households are in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States because of the ongoing conflict in the northeast and the lingering economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
” The October 2021 food security and nutrition analysis – known as the Cadre Harmonise conducted in 20 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has revealed that approximately12.1 million people are expected to be in food insecurity crisis or worse through December this year.
“The analysis involved 154 ,008 ,198 people, out of whom 12, 135, 318 in the participating 20 states plus the FCT are currently experiencing Crisis and Emergency phases of food insecurity.’’
The report’s provisional results was released in Abuja that the number of people in critical or worse phases of food insecurity may increase to about 16.9 million unless efforts are made to scale up and sustain humanitarian support and other government interventions for livelihood recovery and resilience.
Crisis level was described as a stage at which, even with humanitarian aid, at least one out of five households in the target area was characterized with considerable food consumption deficits and acute malnutrition at high or higher rates than the normal.
It also stands for a situation in which households are marginally able to meet their minimum food needs by depleting assets related to livelihoods, leading to deficits in food consumption.
The states analysed in the current Cadre Harmonise round include Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross-River, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, and Yobe, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The analysis estimates that in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, which are the most affected by the prolonged armed conflict, 2.4 million people are currently in the Crisis phase or worse and need urgent assistance.
These include an estimated 228 707 people in the Emergence phase wherein, even with humanitarian aid, at least one out of five households is either facing extreme food deficits, resulting in a very high acute malnutrition or excessive mortality, or an extreme loss of assets relating to livelihoods, causing deficits in food consumption in the short term.
This number was projected to increase to 3.5 million at the peak of the 2022 lean season between June and August, with the number of people anticipated to be in the Emergency phase’ doubling to 459,847.
Another 13, 551 people are anticipated to experience catastrophe-like conditions in some of the most inaccessible localities, if access to life-saving and livelihood support interventions are not sufficiently scaled up.
According to the statement insecurity in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states and banditry in some north-west states and the north-central states is the main driver of the prevailing food insecurity.
“And high inflation rates have resulted in soaring food commodity prices, partly attributable to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic downturn.”
