The Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Anthony Lake, has warned that if urgent measures are not taken to salvage the malnutrition crisis in the north eastern part of Nigeria, it will soon become a catastrophe.
He stated this in a statement yesterday.
“What is already a crisis can become a catastrophe,” he warned.
Lake, however, noted that his organization together with the World Food Programme and other partners are “making a difference in the areas we can reach.
“ With the World Food Programme and other partners, we are treating acutely malnourished children. We are vaccinating children against measles and polio. We are providing safe water and sanitation services.”
He, however, lamented that: “But this is nowhere close to enough.”
According to Lake: “In the three worst-affected states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, farming has been disrupted and crops destroyed, food reserves depleted and often pillaged, and livestock killed or abandoned.
“In Borno, where the fighting has been most brutal, 75 per cent of the water and sanitation infrastructure and 30 per cent of all health facilities have been either destroyed, looted or damaged. “The impact on children is devastating.”
He further said: “We estimate that 400,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition over the next year in the three affected states. If they do not receive the treatment they need, 1 in 5 of these children will die. Cases of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia are on the rise, further endangering children’s lives.
“These figures represent only a fraction of the suffering. Large areas of Borno state are completely inaccessible to any kind of humanitarian assistance. We are extremely concerned about the children trapped in these areas.
“Without adequate resources and without safe access, we and our partners will be unable to reach children whose lives are at imminent risk.”