Not less than 700,000 children under five are among the 2.3 people going hungry in North East, an international humanitarian group, Save the Children has said.
The humanitarian group, which disclosed this on Friday, called on the government to protect farmers and dedicate more resources.
United Nations had earlier estimated that about 10.5 million children are out of school in Nigeria.
The North East Nigeria has been ravaged by activities of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists in the last 12 years, resulting to serious humanitarian crisis.
The Save the Children’s acting Country Director for Nigeria, Shannon Ward, warned that the situation was dire.
“Millions of children have already been through a decade of suffering, violence and humanitarian crisis. Thousands and thousands have died, and many more saw their rights impacted to survive, learn and be protected,” he said.
“The reported loss of livelihoods, land and crop coupled with the effects of COVID-19 is beyond something the community can bear.
“We are extremely worried that this will lead to an even bigger food crisis in the northeast of the country.”
The UN humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, Edward Kallon, in a statement that the combination of climate change, insecurity and the coronavirus pandemic had put the region on the brink of “catastrophic” food insecurity.
The UN humanitarian coordinator said about 4.4 million people were at risk of critical food shortages and that the “growing threat of catastrophic food insecurity” was at its worst in five years.
Kallon said that without humanitarian assistance in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, millions would struggle to feed themselves.
