…As WFP warns 40m people face ‘desperate food shortages’ in W/Africa***

The United Nations report has shown that there are 1.9 million people displaced currently from their homes in North-East, Nigeria.

The Communications Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria, Mr Geoffrey Njoku, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday.

The UN report warned that internally-displaced children in Nigeria were among the world’s most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It said that the warning came, as the organisation released a report looking at the risks and challenges facing internally- displaced children, and the urgent actions needed to protect them.

“In North-East, Nigeria, there are currently 1.9 million people displaced from their homes. Sixty percent of them are children, with one in four under the age of five,” it said.

The report stated that globally, an estimated 19 million children, more than ever before, were living in displacement within their own countries, due to conflict and violence in 2019.

“’Lost at Home’ looks at the risks and challenges internally- displaced children face and the urgent actions needed to protect them,” it said.

It said that as COVID-19 continued to spread around the world, the internally- displaced children were among the most vulnerable to its direct and indirect impacts.

“Hundreds of thousands of children in North-East, Nigeria, are living in the shadow of conflict and now in the increasingly-challenging shadow of a global pandemic and its potential socio-economic aftermath.

“When a new crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic emerges, displaced children are especially vulnerable and the gaps in our ability to keep them safe are even starker.

“We must urgently work together; all of us, government and humanitarian partners, to keep them safe, healthy, learning and protected,” it said.

According to the report, the COVID-19 pandemic is making a critical situation for displaced children and families around the world even worse.

It said that they often lived in overcrowded camps or informal settlements, where access to basic hygiene and health services was limited, and where physical distancing was not possible.

“This is true in Nigeria’s North-East, where conditions pose a particular challenge to containing the possible spread of diseases like COVID-19.

“Internally-displaced children around the world often lack access to basic services and are at risk of exposure to violence, exploitation, abuse and trafficking,” according to the report.

It said that they were also at risk of child labour, child marriage and family separation, all of which posed direct threats to their health and safety.

According to the report, there are 12 million new displacements of children in 2019, with 3.8 million of them caused by conflict and violence and 8.2 million by disasters linked mostly to weather-related events, like flooding and storms.

It said that UNICEF and its partners were working to protect displaced children in the North-East through critical health and nutrition services.

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Others, it said, were provision of access to life-saving WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) services through accelerated construction of facilities, and adapted solutions to continuing education, including provision of radio for distance learning, while schools were closed.

“What we really need now are strategic investments and united efforts by government, civil society organisations, private sector, humanitarian actors and the children themselves, to find solutions to the effects of displacement, especially as we face the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The efforts must also address and help mitigate the long term impacts this can have on children’s health and education,” it said.

In another development, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that no fewer than 40 million people across West Africa face “desperate food shortages in coming months”.

Its spokesperson, Ms Elisabeth Byrs, gave the warning during a virtual news briefing on Tuesday.

Byrs said restrictions imposed by countries to curb the spread of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were adding to people’s vulnerability to hunger.

She stated that populations displaced by armed conflict, and those that had endured climate change emergencies were at higher risks of exposure.

To avert the looming hunger crisis, the WFP spokesperson appealed for continued support from the international community for the agency’s global aid effort.

WFP, a United Nations agency, had earlier issued a similar warning about a “potentially massive spike in global food insecurity in East Africa” due to the pandemic.

“We must sustain our assistance across the region, especially in places such as Central Sahel, Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cameroon.

“An estimated 12 million children under five years old can be acutely malnourished in the lean season from June to August, up from 8.2 million in the same period last year.

“During the lean season in June and August, more than 21 million people across West Africa will struggle to feed themselves,” Byrs warned.

She said the Gambia and Republic of Benin were among the countries in need of intervention.

According to her, another 20 million people can struggle to feed themselves due to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in the next six months.

This, the official noted, would double the number of food-insecure populations to 43 million in the region.

President of the UN General Assembly, Amb. Tijani Muhammad-Bande, raised this concern during a virtual high-level meeting of the Heads of States and Governments of the Non-Aligned Movement on Monday.

Emphasising that many people around the world depended on agriculture for food and income, he urged the leaders to recommit to ending hunger and poverty.

Muhammad-Bande, who is Nigeria’s ambassador to the UN, warned against disruptions in food production and supply.

“We must do our best to ensure that agricultural workers are able to function with minimal disruption.

“I urge Your Excellencies to ensure increased investment in inclusive and resilient food systems that reflect our new reality and position us to better tackle the challenges they present.

“As we contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, we must re-commit to ending hunger and poverty,” he said.

The WFP spokesperson said the agency’s priority remained the most vulnerable individuals, including the urban poor living from “hand-to-mouth”.

Byrs underscored how COVID-19 travel restrictions had compromised the transport of supplies and the functioning of open-air markets that served most people, resulting in price increases in some countries.

WFP said in a statement that movement restrictions could also affect farmers as the planting season approached.

It warned that “an inadequate response” to current needs would put the future well-being of millions of people in the region at stake, particularly women and young children.

The agency said it could also lead to civil unrest in parts of the region already challenged by insecurity and violent extremism.

WFP said it was aiming to overcome the challenges in partnership with the authorities.