Donors pledge over $670m to fight hunger in Nigeria, Lake Chad Basin

Donors at a global UN-supported humanitarian conference, hosted by Norway jointly with Nigeria and Germany, have pledged more than $670 million to help avert a hunger crisis over the next two years and beyond in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The conference equally deliberated on the need to address longer-term development requirements and agreed to seek long-lasting solutions to the looming hunger crisis in the Lake Chad Basin.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), one of the UN agencies at the conference, warned that the humanitarian response efforts should be intensified to enable the people in the Northeast of Nigeria to return to a dignified life after the devastation wrought by the Boko Haram insurgents.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs


Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, said supporting farmers to cultivate food would help free many from being trapped in cycles of severe hunger.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) also underscored the need to address a public health crisis in the region. Dr Rick Brennan, Director of WHO Emergency Operations, noted that the crisis in the region is also a public health crisis.

Brennan explained that “between malnutrition and death, there is always disease. Malnutrition lowers the body’s capacity to fight infection.

“A malnourished child is far more prone to contract an infectious disease such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and measles – and then to die from that disease,” he said.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, also speaking at the conference disclosed that the Federal Government will commit a significant share of the 2017 budget to confront the security and humanitarian situation arising from the Boko Haram terrorism.

“The Nigerian Government is committing significant budget to confront the security and humanitarian situation arising from the insurgency. We also need all the help and support we can get from the international community,” Onyeama said.


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