Herders Invasion, Banditery, Flood Have Pushed 8.7 Milion People In North Into Acute Hunger, Says FAO

Nigeria has been listed among the countries hit by the global food crisis as 8.7 million in the North have been registered as acutely hungry by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

FAO disclosed this in a recent report, seen by THE WHISTLER.

The Organization named Africa’s most populous country as one of the top spots for hunger among 55 countries.

FAO said, “Large increase of acutely hungry people has been registered in Northern Nigeria (a 73 percent increase to 8.7 million people).”

Nigeria’s food insecurity problem has been heightened by the peak of insecurity, occupation of farm lands by herders and religious alongside ethnic tensions.

But most recently is the case of banditery especially in the northern part of the country which stands as its agric base.

Nigeria has been equally hit by flood which washed off about 25 per cent of rice farms particularly in Niger state.

The government said the flood alone was a threat to its war on food insecurity.

Coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, prices of food surged as official data put food inflation at 16 per cent in August.

Nigeria with 200 million people imports a large percentage of its food, but the government has banned the importation of some food commodities into the country like rice and partly maize.

Coupled with forex shortage for imports, prices of food may surge later in the year, experts have said.

Based on the FAO report,  Democratic Republic of Congo was named the country with the world’s largest food crisis in terms of absolute number.

According to FAO, Burkina Faso has increased nearly 300 per cent in the overall number of people experiencing acute hunger since the start of 2020.

Sudan has 64 per cent increase in people with acute hunger, to 9.6 million people, or nearly a quarter of the country’s population, the FAO said.