The United Nations (UN) will appeal for $910 million this week to address the humanitarian crisis in northeastern Nigeria, which has been ravaged by an Islamist insurgency since 2009 and experienced devastating flooding last year, according to documents released on Wednesday.
The documents, seen by Reuters, revealed that 7.8 million people in the three northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe need assistance, and the UN plans to support 3.6 million of them.
At $910 million, this crisis is the most costly in West and Central Africa, surpassing other regional crises in Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
Nigeria is also facing a severe cost-of-living crisis, with inflation at its highest level in nearly 30 years, driven largely by soaring food prices.
The UN has warned that Nigeria’s northeast is at risk of becoming a “forgotten crisis,” as global attention has shifted to other emergencies like those in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan.
A joint report by the Nigerian government and the UN in November indicated that Nigeria is facing one of its worst hunger crises, with more than 30 million people expected to be food-insecure this year.
President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, which include removing a fuel subsidy and eliminating foreign exchange controls, have been blamed for exacerbating Nigeria’s economic difficulties. However, he argues that these reforms will ultimately steer the economy toward stronger growth.
