One in six children to go hungry in Nigeria over high food inflation – Report

A new report by Save the Children has projected that one in every six children which is 15 million in Nigeria will go hungry during the period starting from June 2024.

The report noted that the number of children projected to be hungry from June this year is 25% higher than 2023 mainly caused by conflicts, banditry and elevated levels of food inflation. This represents an additional 3.5 million children to the figure for last year.

According to the report, the situation is more severe in the Northern states of Borno, Yobe, Katsina and Zamfara states were violence and banditry reign supreme.

The country Director for Save the Children, Nigeria, Duncan Harvey stated that a third of the children in the aforementioned northern states do not know where their next meal will come from.

• In his words, “An already dire hunger situation in the country is gradually going from bad to worse as violence, insecurity and rising prices combine to leave over 15 million children hungry in Nigeria. Hunger exists nationwide, but the situation in the north where violence is rife is particularly dire. In Borno, Yobe, Katsina and Zamfara, one in three children do not know where their next meal will come from.”

Furthermore, the report placed Nigeria on the IPC scale 3 which is crisis level, but it estimated that around 490,000 children mostly in Borno and Katsina states will face catastrophic levels of hunger in the year.

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The increase in the overall number of people especially children is expected considering high food inflation at 40% as of March 2024 and worsening levels of violence and banditry across the country especially in the food belt.

• A recent analysis by SBM Intelligence reported that farmers across the country paid on average up to N100,000 to bandits for permission to farm mostly in the northern parts of the country.
• The World bank in its January Food Security update stated that seven states in Northern Nigeria specifically in the North-east and North-western states will face severe hunger in 2024.
• Furthermore, the Cadre d’Harmonise has estimated that the number of people to go hungry across the country in 2024 would reach 32 million– an increase from 26 million earlier projected over the worsening food security issues in the country.