Attachments
SITUATION
• As of August, an estimated 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) resided in northeastern Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states. Additionally, about 240,000 Nigerian refugees had fled violence in the northeast and sought shelter and protection in neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, the UN reports.
• Approximately 3 million people in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe faced Crisis (Phase 3) or worse levels of acute food insecurity and required urgent food assistance between June and August, according to the most recent Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analysis.*
• As ongoing violence disrupts livelihoods and agricultural activities, many conflict-affected families rely on humanitarian aid and market purchases to meet their daily food needs. As a result, Crisis (IPC 3) and Emergency (IPC 4) levels of acute food insecurity will likely persist in much of northeastern Nigeria through January 2020, with ongoing distributions of food assistance sustaining Stressed (IPC 2) conditions in some zones, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) reports. Meanwhile, a risk of Famine (IPC 5) persists in areas that relief actors cannot reach, where food security conditions are likely similar to, or worse than, outcomes in nearby accessible zones.
• Concerning nutrition conditions persist in the northeast. A late-2018 assessment conducted by the Government of Nigeria and UN partners found that in Borno and Yobe, nearly 11 and 13 percent of children younger than five years of age, respectively, are acutely malnourished, representing high acute malnutrition levels per UN guidelines. In Adamawa, acute malnutrition affects seven percent of children, signifying a medium acute malnutrition level.
RESPONSE
• USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP) has assisted crisis-affected populations in northeastern Nigeria since FY 2015. In partnership with the UN World Food Program, FFP provides cash-based and in-kind food assistance, as well as nutrition and livelihoods support, to vulnerable Nigerians.
• FFP also works with non-governmental organizations to assist food-insecure people in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe through cash transfers and food vouchers, increasing access to healthy foods and fostering the recovery of local markets. FFP’s partners also conduct complementary nutrition and livelihoods activities—such as cooking demonstrations, malnutrition screenings, and business management trainings—that help families meet their dietary requirements and strengthen income-generating opportunities.