Millions at risk from African famine worsened by Boko Haram: UN

The participants to the Oslo Humanitarian Conference on Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region pose for a photo in Oslo, Norway on Friday. (Reuters)

OSLO: Aid agencies must get food to close to 3 million people by July to avert a famine in Africa’s Lake Chad region caused by drought, chronic poverty and militant insurgents Boko Haram, the UN said on Friday as it launched a funding appeal.
International donors at a conference in Oslo pledged $672 million for the next three years in new money, $457 million of which was for 2017, Norway’s foreign minister said.
Norway and Germany are jointly giving €373 million ($394 million) to prevent a famine in the African countries around the Lake Chad Basin.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende who announced the Scandinavian country was giving 1.6 billion kroner ($192 million) over a three-year period, said there is “a serious humanitarian situation” in the region encompassing Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“There is urgent need to stop the crisis unfolding in an area with 26 million people,” Brende said in Oslo, the Norwegian capital.
His German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel said Germany added €120 million ($127 million) while opening a one-day international donor conference to help secure funds to prevent a famine in the African region where about 11 million people have an acute need for relief.
The UN, which says it needs $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid for the region this year, had previously raised $19 million toward this target.
The presence of Boko Haram militants has prevented farmers from planting crops or accessing Lake Chad to provide water for their animals. Fishermen have also been prevented from accessing the lake which is shared between Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad, aid experts say.
Boko Haram militants have killed around 15,000 people and forced more than 2 million from their homes during a seven-year insurgency.
The most urgent need is to reach 2.8 million people with rice or sorghum, or cash to buy supplies, by July, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said.
“We are in the lean season and people’s supplies are depleted. We need to avoid a famine,” Abdou Dieng, the WFP’s country director for West and Central Africa, told Reuters.
Overall 10.7 million people — roughly two out of three inhabitants — need humanitarian help such as food, water, education or protection, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Half a million children aged under 5 are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
“One in five could die and the others could suffer severe long-term consequences, such as stunting,” Manuel Fontaine, the UN children’s fund (UNICEF’s) head of emergency programs, told Reuters.