Over 9 million Lake Chad residents in urgent need of food aid - UN

Over 9 million people in the Lake Chad region are in urgent need of food aid.

This is according to the UN which says that half the residents in the region are facing chronic food insecurity and malnutrition as violence continues to escalate.

UN says 9.2 million Lake Chad residents need food aid https://t.co/PtgXO7GhiQ via NewsRepublic

— #Abbas Abdul (AbbasRafiu) May 17, 2016

The fighting is blamed on Boko Haram militants and estimates indicate that 2.4 million people have been forced to flee from their homes while more than 20,000 others have been killed.

Lake Chad has several islands that have been evacuated at the request of the Chadian army to help it fight the insurgents.

Since 2015, the four countries that share Lake Chad, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have made strides in the fight against Boko Haram but have been unable to vanquish the Islamists entirely.

Currently, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O’Brien, is on a four-day tour of the area to raise awareness of the crisis.

Last week, Nigeria hosted a summit on battling Boko Haram which continues to pose a major security threat in West Africa while the UN Security Council expressed concern over the growing ties between the insurgents and the Islamic State.

AFP