President of the United States of America, USA, Barack Obama, has raised alarm over the spate of hunger and starvation especially in the North East of Nigeria, triggered by the on-going war against Boko Haram, under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The outgoing US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, Speaking on behalf of Obama on Friday, June 1, expressed strong reservations about the humanitarian crisis in the North-east and called for urgent action from all stakeholders.
Apparently reacting to the humanitarian crisis, Buhari has dispatched food and drugs to the camp of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Bama, Borno State.
Entwistle, who spoke in Lagos declared: “Nigerians are dying of starvation in Nigeria. How can that be?
“As you fight Boko Haram and secure and rebuild the Northeast, and as you strive for harmony in the Niger Delta and across the land, we will continue to help in every appropriate way. Indeed, let us all redouble our efforts on the humanitarian front in the Northeast….
“As I told President Jonathan when I arrived in Nigeria in November 2013, and as Secretary Kerry told President Buhari when they met immediately after the presidential inauguration, and as President Obama told President Buhari directly when he received him in the Oval Office at the White House last July, the people of Nigeria have no better friend than the United States. In my country, our commitment to democracy is right there in our Declaration of Independence”.
Meanwhile, the US Government, through its Agency for International Development, USAID, has delivered over 160 metric tons of seeds (maize, sorghum, millet, groundnut, and cowpea) to over 6,000 households in Adamawa and Borno States.
More than 60,000 IDPs in the local government authorities of Madagali, Michika, Gombe, and Fufore of Adamawa, and Kaga of Borno, benefitted from this effort.
A report by Borno State Government claimed that about 200 children were killed by malnutrition in a month at the camp in the heart of Bama, which was recently liberated from Boko Haram.
The President’s team to Bama was led by his Special Adviser on Social Investment, Hajiya Maryam Uwais.
Uwais, in her address to the IDPs on Thursday, acknowledged the enormity of the challenges they faced and assured them that President Buhari was concerned and committed to addressing their plights.
The North East zonal coordinator of National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Alhaji Mohammed Kanar, disclosed that the Federal Government through the Presidential Initiative for North East had commenced the construction of 500 new tents each in some identified camps in Maiduguri as well as all the satellite camps including Bama, Dikwa, Moguno and Konduga.
The delegation was taken around the Bama camp, home to 25,000 adults and children, by the Brigade Commander of the 21 Armoured Brigade, Bama, Colonel Adamu Garba Laka.
The Commander highlighted the challenges faced in the camp, including shortages of medical personnel, shelter, water and sanitation facilities.
