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Averting famine in Northeast Nigeria: Progress One Year After Declaration of Emergency in Borno State

July 2017

Photography: Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger, Monguno, Borno, Nigeria

“Boko Haram burned our village down. They left us with only the clothes we are wearing,” said an elderly man Action Against Hunger found living in an abandoned school in the community of Monguno in Borno State in northeast Nigeria. “All our sources of income and livelihood have been taken away from us. We are no beggars here.”

Across northeast Nigeria, as a result of the brutal conflict between military forces and the insurgency group Boko Haram, 2.1 million people have been uprooted by violence and left without shelter, health care, clean water, or food.

In July 2016, a state of emergency was declared in Borno State in northeast Nigeria in response to critical levels of malnutrition and an elevated risk of famine in conflict zones. According to analysis by Action Against Hunger and other experts, 5.2 million are experiencing food shortages as of July 2017. Of those, 59,500 people in parts of Borno State are facing famine conditions, and UNICEF warns that an estimated 244,000 children in Borno are acutely malnourished.

We do not use the word famine lightly: it is a rare and highly technical classification used to categorize only the most extreme, deadly hunger emergencies, which are almost always triggered by war. In response to the threat of famine in Borno, Action Against Hunger was able mobilize immediately thanks to your support.

You play an integral role in our team: Within days, you allowed us to deploy our expert rapid response team and conducted an initial emergency assessment in Monguno, a previously inaccessible area in Borno that had been cut off from humanitarian assistance for almost two years. Within weeks, your support made it possible to launch a comprehensive new emergency program in Monguno — and we began scaling up existing programs in the city of Maiduguri. Within months, we mobilized new emergency interventions in 4 other previously inaccessible areas in Borno, none of which would have been possible without your generosity and compassion.

By April of 2017, your support of our work accounted for 20-25 percent of all the emergency food assistance delivered to the population threatened by famine in northeast Nigeria. Today, our assessments indicate that our interventions have successfully reduced prevalence of acute malnutrition below emergency thresholds in the areas where we have access to people in need. Thank you for making this a reality.

LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND

Words falls short of expressing how immensely proud we are of our team in Nigeria for rising to the challenge—often putting their own lives at risk to reach families cut off from help.

But we did not do this work alone. Your incredible outpouring of compassion and support over the past 11 months has made it possible for us to rise to the challenge. On behalf of our dedicated aid workers on the ground in northeast Nigeria—and on behalf of all the parents, grandparents, and children whose lives you have saved—please accept our profound thanks for answering the call for help.

Here is what we have achieved together in Borno State over the past 11 months since we launched a response to the elevated risk of famine.

WHERE WE ARE RESPONDING

In response to the elevated risk of famine in Borno State, you helped us scale up existing programs in the city of Maiduguri and launch new emergency interventions in five newly accessible areas in north Borno.

  • Maiduguri city (scaled up existing programs)
  • Jere (new emergency program)
  • Magumeri (new emergency program)
  • Kukawa (new emergency program)
  • Ngazai (new emergency program)
  • Monguno LGA (new emergency program)

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED

Thanks to your generous support, we have delivered lifesaving humanitarian assistance to 425,131 people in conflict-affected communities in Borno State since August 2016. Here are some highlights:

  • Food Security and Livelihoods: 216,968 people
    • Provided emergency food assistance via cash transfers to cover urgent survival needs of 51,000 people
    • Distributed monthly emergency food rations and cooking kits to 131,085 people
    • Supported 3903 families with microgardens to improve nutrition and access to food, including training and distribution of seeds, cash, and kitchen garden equipment
    • Helped 1,041 families improve income through livelihood training and support
  • Water, sanitation, and hygiene: 136,026 people
    • Rehabilitated 27 boreholes for access to safe water for displaced families and vulnerable members of host communities.
    • Built 192 latrines and 153 shower facilities to improve sanitation and hygiene in informal camps for displaced populations in Maiduguri.
    • Provided 20,440 households with emergency relief items, temporary shelter, and emergency hygiene kits and promoted hygiene education to prevent waterborne diseases.
  • Emergency health services and treatment for malnutrition: 72,137 people
    • Delivered lifesaving screening and treatment to 4,885 acutely malnourished children.
    • Provided supplementary food to prevent acute malnutrition among 9,749 pregnant women and nursing mothers and 18,199 children.
    • Rehabilitated health facilities and trained local health workers and community volunteers to screen and treat malnutrition.
    • Educated 8,693 pregnant women and nursing mothers to prevent malnutrition through proper care and feeding practices through “mother-to-mother support groups.”

BAND-AIDS AREN’T ENOUGH: RECOVERY FOR THE LONG TERM

We have made progress in averting famine in Borno State, and fighting hunger across other areas of northeast Nigeria, but our work is far from done. The needs remain immense, the international humanitarian response remains underfunded, and rainy season has begun in the northeast, making access to communities challenging and increasing the risk of hunger and waterborne diseases like cholera and malaria.

Action Against Hunger’s Country Director in Nigeria, Yannick Pouchalan, warns, “Food stocks are very limited, and the rainy season will put vulnerable children at even greater risk from threats such as malaria. We must do everything in our power not only to provide shelter, psychosocial support, comprehensive primary health care, and sanitation and but also deliver longer-term solutions to help people rebuild their livelihoods.”

We will not give up, no matter what it takes, until children in Nigeria are safe from the threat of famine. We hope you won’t either.

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