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	People are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity by Unicef, MSF, Action against Hunger, agencies Northeastern Nigeria   Sept. 2017   Almost 800,000 children severely malnourished in the Lake Chad Region - Report from Norwegian Refugee Council.   Close to 800,000 children under the age of five are severely malnourished in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad. 'Lack of sufficient humanitarian funding is putting young children's lives at risk', warned the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland.   'We need improved security for civilians and aid workers, and access to all those in need, but we must also build a bigger humanitarian effort that can provide for the suffering millions', said Egeland.   Violence has spread from Northern Nigeria to Niger, Cameroon and Chad as the extremist militant Islamist group Boko Haram has instigated attacks that has, developed into violent confrontations with the security forces in the region. It has cost thousands of people's lives, forced millions to flee their homes and hampered people's ability to cultivate their land. The latter has resulted in a devastating food crisis.   In Nigeria 5.2 million people now remain food insecure, including tens of thousands who are already living in famine-like conditions. Close to 800,000 children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the Lake Chad region, including 450,000 in Nigeria, 247,500 in Niger, 63,000 in Cameroon and 22,000 in Chad. At the same time last year, 475,000 children suffered from severely acute malnutrition in the region.   http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/almost-800000-children-severely-malnourished-lake-chad-region   Dec. 2016   Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, on the situation of children in Nigeria:   The violent conflict in northeast Nigeria has left children severely malnourished and at risk of death. In the three worst-affected states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, farming has been disrupted and crops destroyed, food reserves depleted and often pillaged, and livestock killed or abandoned. In Borno, where the fighting has been most brutal, 75 per cent of the water and sanitation infrastructure and 30 per cent of all health facilities have been either destroyed, looted or damaged.   The impact on children is devastating. We estimate that 400,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition over the next year in the three affected states. If they do not receive the treatment they need, 1 in 5 of these children will die. Cases of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia are on the rise, further endangering children's lives.   These figures represent only a fraction of the suffering. Large areas of Borno state are completely inaccessible to any kind of humanitarian assistance. We are extremely concerned about the children trapped in these areas.   We are making a difference in the areas we can reach. With the World Food Programme and other partners, we are treating acutely malnourished children. We are vaccinating children against measles and polio. We are providing safe water and sanitation services. But this is nowhere close to enough.   Without adequate resources and without safe access, we and our partners will be unable to reach children whose lives are at imminent risk. What is already a crisis can become a catastrophe'.   http://uni.cf/2gX3fFL http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/blog/evidence-indicates-elevated-risk-famine-northeast-nigeria   December 2016   With the scale of human suffering in north-eastern Nigeria becoming clearer as the Government has pushed Boko Haram insurgents from more and more areas, the United Nations has launched a funding appeal to address the needs of those in the largest crisis on the African continent.   The Humanitarian Response Plan will address the needs of almost 7 million people, in dire need of nutrition, food, shelter, health, education, protection and the water and sanitation needs of a very vulnerable population. A projected 5.1 million people will face serious food shortages as the conflict has prevented farmers planting for a third year in a row, causing a major food crisis.   Child Malnutrition rates in Nigeria horrifying. (IRIN News)   The world may have finally woken up to the child hunger emergency in northeastern Nigeria, but the latest data shows, if anything, a deepening crisis.   Levels of Global Acute Malnutrition recorded in July and August were well over the 15 percent threshold deemed 'critical', and, in some cases, higher than 50 percent, meaning more than half the children surveyed suffered from moderate or severe acute malnutrition.   In a special report on the 'possibly deteriorating' situation in the states of Borno and Yobe, FEWS NET, said surveys and screenings indicated GAM rates ranging from 20 to nearly 60 percent.   This level of acute malnutrition reflects an 'Extreme Critical' situation and is associated with a significantly increased risk of child mortality, it said. Conditions may be even worse in areas that remain inaccessible.   Elizabeth Wright, head of communications for Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger), which conducted several of the nutrition surveys, said the situation 'not in northeastern Nigeria alone, but also in Yemen, South Sudan, and Central African Republic' represented the worst humanitarian crisis and suffering since World War II.   'We are seeing a horrifying prevalence of malnutrition that far exceeds emergency thresholds, and people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity', she told IRIN.   The latest red flag from FEWS NET draws particular attention to places like Banki Town and Bama in Borno State, where the threat of Boko Haram violence continues to limit movement and prevent humanitarian access.   Not long ago a busy farming hub and commercial centre home to 270,000 people, Bama is a ghost town. One of the places worst hit by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, the streets are deserted, the houses on them have no roofs, and there is literally no sign of life.   A former government hospital has been converted into a camp and now holds more than 25,000 internally displaced people, mostly from neighbouring towns and villages, with some coming in from as far as Adamawa State and towns along the border with Cameroon.   Most people here, especially the displaced, regard the town as neither fully safe nor ready for reoccupation, and they fear going back to villages even more likely to be attacked.   In Gwoza, like in Bama, returnees are scared because there is no guarantee of safety as they seek to rebuild their homes or start planting again.   Those who have the courage to go back are forced to start farming along the road and send their cows into the farming areas deep in [Boko Haram territory].   Starving to death: Boko Haram displaced facing food crisis. (Unicef, agencies)   A quarter of a million children in Borno state, north-eastern Nigeria, are suffering from severe malnutrition, the United Nations children's agency today announced. Of those, about one in five will die if they do not receive treatment.   The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that as Boko Haram is pushed out and more of the north-east area is becoming accessible to humanitarian assistance, the extent of the nutrition crisis is becoming more apparent.   'Some 134 children on average will die every day from causes linked to acute malnutrition if the response is not scaled up quickly', said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for Western and Central Africa, who just returned from a visit to Borno state.   'We need donors to step forward to prevent any more children from dying. No one can take on a crisis of this scale alone'.   Mr. Fontaine described ruins of towns accommodating displaced people, families with little access to adequate sanitation, water or food, and thousands of frail children in desperate need of help.   'There are 2 million people we are still not able to reach in Borno state, which means that the true scope of this crisis has yet to be revealed to the world', he stressed.   Around 3.8 million people are currently facing severe food insecurity across the Lake Chad Basin, where the lean season has now set in in many parts.   In early 2016, UNICEF appealed for urgent funding to respond to the humanitarian crisis in north-east Nigeria.   http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/unicef-more-doubles-its-funding-appeal-provide-life-saving-assistance-children http://unocha.exposure.co/when-conflicts-starve-children http://bit.ly/2gemMn4 http://www.savethechildren.net/article/two-hundred-children-could-die-every-day-north-east-nigeria-hunger-crisis http://www.unocha.org/nigeria   June 2016   Lake Chad: 'Not a day goes by without a child dying of malnutrition'   The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says over 9 million people are in urgent need of aid in the Lake Chad region of Africa. More than 2.4 million people have fled their homes in four countries, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria because of the conflict between government forces and armed opposition, which has lasted six years.   The situation is now deteriorating further, especially in north-eastern Nigeria, and the ICRC is scaling up its humanitarian activities throughout the region.   "There is a critical shortage of food. We can barely imagine the scale of hunger in some areas where humanitarian aid has not yet reached. Children are suffering especially. Not a day goes by without a child dying of malnutrition," said the ICRC's director of operations, Dominik Stillhart.   A string of attacks in Niger's Diffa region during the last few days has led to around 50,000 people fleeing their homes. In north-eastern Nigeria, hundreds of displaced people are still arriving at different locations in search of shelter and food.   In many cases, the evolving conflict across the region drives people to flee on multiple occasions, increasing hardship and making life extremely precarious. Most abandon their homes leaving everything behind, and lack the very basic necessities of life.   Since the beginning of the year, the ICRC and the local Red Cross Societies have distributed food to more than 300,000 displaced people and returnees in Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, while 15,000 displaced people have received emergency shelter in Adamawa and Borno State in Nigeria. With access to health-care limited, ICRC surgical teams are supporting Diffa and Maiduguri hospitals. More than 800 patients, most of them war wounded, have received life-saving emergency treatment since January 2016.   "We are one of the few organizations present on the ground, with the capacity to act quickly. Our access to people affected by the conflict is growing, so we are reaching more and more people in desperate need. We have to provide more aid, especially food, otherwise more people will die," said Mr Stillhart.   June 2016 (AFP)   At least 10 people are "starving to death" every day in a camp in northeast Nigeria for people displaced by Boko Haram violence, highlighting warnings about a food crisis in the Lake Chad region.   Witnesses said the deaths were occurring in the town of Banki where they are based, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.   "People are dying in large numbers in the camp every day from lack of food," people on the ground told AFP. "They are starving to death on a daily basis. Between 10 and 11 people, including men, women and children, die daily since the IDP (internally displaced persons) camp was opened three months ago.   "As of yesterday we counted 376 graves in the Bulachira cemetery belonging to dead IDPs who died in the last three months.. At least 10 people are buried every day in the cemetery'.   "The whole camp is hunger-stricken. People are emaciated and starving to death. If nobody intervenes, a huge catastrophe is looming because these people can't hold out."   The Borno state government and aid agencies have warned about acute food shortages in the Lake Chad region as a result of seven years of violence.   The United Nations said in May that 9.2 million people living around the lake, which forms the border of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, were in desperate need of food.   One Nigerian refugee in a camp in southeastern Niger told AFP last month: "I think that everyone has abandoned us." Another said it had been four months since they last received food aid.   Even at the Dalori camp outside Maiduguri, which houses about 20,000 people, IDPs say there is not enough to eat and children especially are always hungry.   The Boko Haram Islamist insurgency is one of the world's most brutal conflicts: at least 20,000 people have been killed since it began in 2009 and more than 2.6 million others displaced.   Nigeria's government has been encouraging IDPs to return home since the recapture of territory lost to the Islamist militants in 2014.   But most are still largely reliant on food assistance, with farmlands devastated, and homes and local infrastructure destroyed.   http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/number-people-need-food-assistance-grows-north-eastern-nigeria http://www.msf.org/en/article/nigeria-malnutrition-biggest-problem-bama http://www.msf.org/en/article/niger-insufficient-humanitarian-response-crisis-diffa http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/nigeria/nearly-25-million-face-starvation-nigeria http://stories.actionagainsthunger.org/emergency-crisis-in-nigeria http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/hunger-stalks-north-eastern-nigeria http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/humanitarian-partners-pledge-major-increase-life-saving-support-millions-people-lake http://reliefweb.int/disaster/ot-2011-000205-ner http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator-stephen
	Drought fuelling East Africa Hunger by IFRC, Oxfam, FAO, agencies   Oct. 2017   Fighting famine in East and Central Africa. (IFRC)   Millions of people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda are facing a severe food crisis and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The situation is expected to intensify in the coming months as the current drought continues, and rising prices, insecurity, and restricted humanitarian access compound the crisis. At no other time in recent history has severe hunger and starvation loomed so large.   The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement response builds on its efforts to improve resilience and provide social protection. Our presence in thousands of communities across the region allows us to offer vital support where it is most needed.   http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/what-we-do/disaster-and-crisis-management/hunger-in-africa/ http://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/unicef-horn-africa-drought-situation-updated-31-october-2017   Feb. 2017   How climate change is helping fuel a massive hunger crisis in East Africa. (Oxfam)   Nearly 11 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya face food shortages. A massive drought has killed off crops and cattle throughout the region. Millions, many already in poverty, have been left with almost nothing.   Climate scientists and activists have warned for years now that climate change would cause or intensify crisis like this one.   After looking at the most recent research and consulting with various experts, we can say that climate change has made a bad situation worse.   Droughts are not new to East Africa. However, abnormally high temperatures in the region are linked to climate change. Greenhouse gases, from burning fossil fuels or deforestation, for example, trap heat in our atmosphere and raise the Earth's temperature. Globally, the last three years have been the hottest ever recorded. These higher temperatures have intensified the drought.   Higher temperatures increase evaporation, meaning soil and plants lose more water. Heat has contributed to crops withering in parched, cracked soil.   Excessive heat during a drought can be deadly for livestock. In pastoral areas in northern Somalia and elsewhere, higher temperatures over the past six months have turned very poor rains last year into a terrible loss of soil moisture - helping to desiccate all available fodder for most of the region's pastoralists.   Many farmers and herders in the region that Oxfam has spoken with say the same thing: things have never been this bad. Families have left their homes and sought help in temporary settlements, where they receive barely enough food and water to survive.   These communities need urgent help. The United Nations has asked for $1.9 billion to increase emergency food, water, and other resources to save lives. The international community needs to step up and meet this goal. We need commitments from the rest of the world to prevent these situations from reaching this point.   These crises hit people living in poverty hardest. National programs meant to help and improve the economic well-being of small farmers and herders means they'll be better prepared to cope when the next drought hits.   Finally, it's time for climate action. Even if all countries cut their greenhouse gasses by as much as they've promised, the world is going to get much hotter, more than 3 degrees Celsius.   Governments need to make deeper cuts to reign in global warming, and they need to put forth the funds that these communities are owed to help them adapt to this new reality. http://www.oxfam.org/en/emergencies/famine-and-hunger-crisis   Worst Drought in Decades drives Food Prices higher in East Africa. (IPS News)   The most severe drought in decades, which has struck parts of Ethiopia and is exacerbated by a particularly strong El Nino effect, has led to successive failed harvests and widespread livestock deaths in some areas, and humanitarian needs have tripled since the beginning of 2015, the United Nations warns.   East Africa's ongoing drought has sharply curbed harvests and driven up the prices of cereals and other staple foods to unusually high levels, posing a heavy burden to households and special risks for pastoralists in the region, the United Nations food and agricultural agency warned.   'Sharply increasing prices are severely constraining food access for large numbers of households with alarming consequences in terms of food insecurity', said Mario Zappacosta, a senior economist for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).   Local prices of maize, sorghum and other cereals are near or at record levels in swathes of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania, according to the latest Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Bulletin (FPMA).   In Tanzania, maize prices in Arusha, Tanzania, have almost doubled since early 2016.In South Sudan, food prices are now two to four times above their levels of a year earlier, while in Kenya, maize prices are up by around 30 per cent. Beans now cost 40 per cent more in Kenya than a year earlier, while in Uganda, the prices of beans and cassava flour are both about 25 per cent higher than a year ago in the capital city, Kampala.   Humanitarian needs have tripled since the beginning of 2015 as the drought has devastating effects on the lives and livelihoods. Food insecurity and malnutrition rates are alarming with some 10.2 million people in need of food assistance.   FAO also reports that one-quarter of all districts in Ethiopia are officially classified as facing a food security and nutrition crisis - 435,000 children are suffering severe acute malnutrition and 1.7 million children, pregnant and lactating women are experiencing moderate acute malnutrition.   More than 80 per cent of people in Ethiopia rely on agriculture and livestock as their primary source of food and income, however, the frequency of droughts over the years has left many communities particularly vulnerable.   Significant production losses, by up to 50-90 percent in some areas, have severely diminished households food security and purchasing power, forcing many to sell their remaining assets and abandon their livelihoods.   http://bit.ly/2llLjtq http://bit.ly/2ks03rq http://www.fao.org/emergencies/emergency-types/drought/en/ http://www.fao.org/emergencies/en/ http://www.fews.net/east-africa http://bit.ly/2ua5gaK http://www.fews.net/ http://www.fao.org/giews/country-analysis/external-assistance/en/ Visit the related web page
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