The United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) has reported that Nigeria is among the top five countries with the worst food crises.
This information was disclosed in a report by the United Nations.
According to the report by the United Nations World Food Programme, Nigeria has the world’s fifth-highest burden of people experiencing food crises, only better than war-torn Yemen, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia.
The UNWFP also stated that at least 19.5 million people were in need of emergency assistance in 2022, and some communities in Nigeria’s conflict-affected northeast were projected to slide into catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Urgent, targeted humanitarian action was needed to save lives and livelihoods, requiring not only emergency responses but also anticipatory action.
The WFP declared: “Even though Nigeria graduated to lower-middle-income status in 2014, its immense human development potential remains unfulfilled, and its most vulnerable people continue to suffer critical levels of food insecurity and malnutrition, driven by persistent conflict, organized violence, recurrent climate shocks, and broad exposure to the impact of climate change.”
“Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country has the world’s fifth-highest burden of people experiencing food crises or worse, exceeded only by Yemen, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
“With at least 19.5 million people in need of urgent assistance in 2022 and some communities in the conflict-affected northeast projected to slide into catastrophic levels of food insecurity, targeted humanitarian action is urgently needed to save lives and livelihoods, requiring not only emergency responses but also anticipatory action.”
The global humanitarian body stressed that the severity and magnitude of the regionalized crises have been compounded by the global food supply crisis, constraining Nigeria’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the agency revealed its plan to expand humanitarian operations in the north-east and north-west and among Cameroonian refugees in border states.
“To meet the challenges posed by the situation, WFP will integrate its dual mandate in Nigeria through work at the humanitarian–development–peace nexus, applying targeted emergency responses that save lives while forging shock-responsive pathways to early recovery and sustainable, resilient food security, all underpinned by the integration of nutrition, gender, climate change adaptation, and protection concerns into its changing-lives activities,” it said.
