HUNDRED children are currently at the mercy of death every day in the North-East axis of Nigeria, as severe food crisis hit displaced people with children the worse affected by the starvation scourge.
Humanitarian workers say North-East, a hot bed of Boko Haram terrorism, stands on the brink of famine. According to them, hundreds of thousands of children could starve – unless the world acts immediately. Immediately is the word because the situation is quite critical.
An international group operating also in Nigeria, Safe the Children, says children are paying the heaviest price for seven years of brutal war, which has intensified in the past few months.
It’ is predicted that unless the response is stepped up ”right now”, 400,000 children are at imminent risk of starvation and 200 children a day will die.
The group’s CEO Kevin Watkins, who recently visited the flashpoint said: ”Some of the mothers who I spoke to had walked for two weeks to get their children treated at Save the Children’s clinic.
”There’s still an opportunity to prevent a full blown famine – but that window is closing fast. Failure to act would be indefensible and unforgivable.”
Safe the Children is providing severely malnourished children with expert treatment at our specialist health centres. They are equally helping children get clean water and improving sanitation by building latrines and conducting hygiene awareness sessions, especially for families forced from their homes.
Forty-seven years after the civil war (1967–1970), it appears Nigeria has been hit by the biggest humanitarian crisis in Africa, with the UN warning that some 100,000 people, mostly children, could die of starvation in the north-east unless they receive urgent aid.
The extent of the crisis has become clearer as the army regains territory from militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency in 2009 to establish Islamic rule in the region. Source: 
nigerianow.co
nigerianow.co
