Over 12 million Nigerians risk starvation, FAO, others warn

A report Cadre Harmonisé (CH) has revealed that “about 12.1 million people in 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are expected to be in a food crisis or worse through October to December 2021.”

The report also said that “about 16.9 million people in 20 states and FCT are expected to be in crisis or worse between June and August 2022.”

The report was jointly analysed by partners including the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), Action Against Hunger.

The report said there is improvement in food consumption across most of the states, however, some LGAs in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe (North-east) experience crisis food consumption status in the current period (October to December 2021).

“In the projected period (June to August 2022) food consumption is expected to slightly worsen due to possible reduction in household and market stocks and its attendant rise in food prices”

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Furthermore, the report said during the current analysis period, most of the households in the analysed areas adopted crisis-level livelihood coping strategies.

“This is most common in the insurgency affected states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States experiencing the activities of bandits (Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna), and then Abia and Edo States.

“In the projected period, these areas would most likely resort to the use of deteriorating levels of crisis and emergency livelihood coping strategies which might lead to a severe depletion of livelihood assets, unless on-going humanitarian action is sustained (in the areas where they are already in operation) and sustainable intervention explored in the states where no humanitarian operation exits,” the report noted.

On nutrition, the report said the situation shows that the prevalence of global acute malnutrition for children under five years for most of the accessible areas of Borno and Yobe States is in the crisis phase, while those of Adamawa are in stress.

“In some inaccessible areas of Borno State, the prevalence of global acute malnutrition has reached very critical levels (Phase 4 and Phase 5). There was no acceptable nutrition data for the other states analysed.

“The concerning status of nutrition in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, and most critically in the inaccessible areas, calls for urgent attention to the knowledge-base of caregivers in the areas of dietetics and hygiene practices. Similarly, the drastic drop in household income is due to the long-run impact of covid-19 and insecurity.

“Results from the CH analysis shows that the current mortality rate is in the minimal phase across the accessible areas of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States. In the inaccessible areas of Borno State, the mortality rate indicates an extremely critical situation (Phase 5). Other states did not have analysable data on mortality,” the report added.

According to the report, the key drivers of the food crisis are insecurity, especially insurgency in the North-East states particularly in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, armed banditry and kidnapping in some North-West states such as Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna states as well as North Central states of Benue and Niger which have persisted.

Others are the long-run impact of the covid-19 is also taking its toll on the livelihoods and hence, loss of employment and jobs, resulting in loss or reduction of income which limits access to market related access to food.

The FAO country representative, Mr Fred Kafeero, commended the Ministry of Agriculture for approving the inclusion of 5 more states in this year’s CH analysis.

He said “in these new states (Abia, Cross River, Edo, Enugu and Lagos), we have undertaken sensitization. Inaugurated state CH task forces, and trained the State CH Analysis.

“Together we should consider investing in comprehensive food security and vulnerability assessments to generate adequate baseline data and information for the newly included states before subsequent CH assessments are done,” he said.

He, however, urged both federal and state governments to allocate annual budgetary resources and in-kind contributions to facilitate critical data generation and state-level CH analysis.

He also called for continued technical support from partners in terms of capacity building, data collection and technical support to the analysis, as well as support from development partners to the food security and nutrition monitoring, assessment and analysis.