FAO: Over 12m Nigerians facing hunger because of insecurity, COVID

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says over 12 million Nigerians are experiencing hunger owing to insecurity and the COVID pandemic.

NAN reports that David Tsokar, FAO communications officer, said this in a statement on Friday.

Tsokar said the FAO arrived at the conclusion based on an analysis conducted in October in 20 states.

According to him, about 19 percent of affected households are in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states because of the insurgency in the north-east and the lingering economic impact of COVID-19.

“The analysis, known as the Cadre Harmonise, conducted in 20 states and the FCT revealed that approximately 12.1 million people are expected to face food scarcity through December,” the communications officer said.

“The provisional result of the report showed that the number of people in critical or worse phases of food insecurity might increase to about 16.9 million.”

Tsokar said this would be the reality unless measures, including humanitarian aid, are put in place.

In Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, 2.4 million people are said to be currently facing hunger and are in need of urgent assistance.

Tsokar said an estimated 2 million people in the emergence phase, even with humanitarian aid, are facing extreme food deficits, resulting in very high acute malnutrition or excessive mortality.

According to him, this number is projected to increase to 3.5 million at the peak of the 2022 lean season between June and August.

Tsokar said at this time, the number of people anticipated to be in the emergency phase could double to 4.6 million.

“Another 13.6 million people were anticipated to experience catastrophe-like conditions in some of the most inaccessible localities,” he added.