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UN seeks $910m humanitarian support for Nigeria amid cost of living crisis

THE United Nations (UN) has set plans to secure $910 million this week to help tackle a humanitarian crisis in northeastern Nigeria.

Reuters revealed this in a report on Wednesday, January 22, hinting that the plan is contained in UN documents sighted by the organisation.

It said documents showed that 7.8 million people need help in the three northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe and that the UN aims to help 3.6 million of them.

Nigeria has been in the grip of an Islamist insurgency since 2009 and was hit by flooding last year.

The country is also grappling with a cost of living crisis that has seen inflation accelerate to its highest level in nearly three decades, propelled by skyrocketing food prices.

The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the country’s headline inflation hit a near 30-year high of 34.8 per cent in December 2024.

Food inflation, which constitutes more than 50 per cent of Nigeria’s inflation basket, eased to 39.84 per cent in the review month.



The economic policies initiated by President Bola Tinubu-led administration, including fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange unification, have worsened economic troubles for both households and businesses.

Although the President says his reforms will put the country’s economy on a stronger path to growth, however, the policies are yet to yield the desired results.




     

     

    The $910 million aid will be the most expensive humanitarian crisis in West and Central Africa, ahead of Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, the documents reportedly showed.

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    Last year, the UN raised alarm over the devastating flooding impact in Borno State, pointing out that it had exacerbated an already critical food and nutrition crisis in the state’s Internally Displaced Person camps, The ICIR reported.

    It had previously said Nigeria’s northeast risks becoming a forgotten crisis as the humanitarian focus has shifted to crises elsewhere such as Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.

    A joint report by the government and UN in November last year stated that Nigeria faces one of its worst hunger crises with more than 30 million people expected to be food-insecure this year.

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