Close to 500,000 children around Lake Chad face “severe acute malnutrition” due to drought and the seven-year insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, UNICEF has warned.
The United Nations children’s agency says that about 475,000 children are deemed to be at risk, with 49,000 in Borno State, Boko Haram’s heartland, facing death if they do not receive treatment.
The agency is appealing for $308 million those affected in the four countries, saying it had only received $41 million, just 13 percent of the amount it needs.
The West African nations came together to form an anti-Boko Haram force aimed at crushing the militants’ threat in the region.
Despite the military gains however, UNICEF said, 2.2 million people remain trapped in areas under the control of Boko Haram – which is trying to establish a caliphate in the southern reaches of the Sahara – or are staying in camps, fearful of going home.
