Thousands of children could die of starvation in north-eastern Nigeria, UN warns

The UN Humanitarian coordinator for West Africa says tens of thousands of people are dying of hunger caused by frequent Boko Haram attacks.

Out of the 568,000 children who are malnourished in the Lake Chad Basin, 400,000 of them are in North East Nigeria.

Boko Haram militants have killed about 15,000 people and displaced 2 million others during their seven year insurgency.

Due to Continuous insecurity, people have missed three planting seasons.

“And here is something we know. We know that in the next 12 months 75 or maybe as many as 80,000 children will die in the northeast of Nigeria unless we can reach them with very specific, food,” UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Sahel, Toby Lanzer said. Observers have warned that with millions more short of food in northern Nigeria and neighbouring countries, the situation could get much worse, and could turn into the biggest food crisis in the world.

Just few weeks back, an aid agency worker from the Nigerian town of Bama said he had counted the graves of at least 430 children who had died of hunger in the past few weeks.