Headlines
Nigeria, Other West African Countries Facing Worst Food Crisis in 10 Years, Aid Groups Say
By Derrick Bangura
International aid agencies on Tuesday raised the alarm that the West African sub-region was currently facing its worst food crisis in a decade, with 27 million people currently going hungry.
In a damning statement, 11 major international organisations including Oxfam, ALIMA and Save the Children, among others, warned that the figure could even rise to 38 million by June.
The global aid groups warned that unless urgent action is taken, the increase would mark “a new historic level” and an increase by more than a third during last year.
The alert came a day ahead of a virtual conference on the food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel and Lake Chad.
A recent report jointly anchored by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) had also warned that acute food insecurity was likely to deteriorate further in Nigeria and 19 other countries, particularly between February and May 2022.
The reality of hunger is also increasingly manifesting across parts of the continent. President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina estimates that about 250 million Africans live on an empty stomach daily.
According to him, hunger has become a way of life on the continent, adding that food systems across the continent were failing to deliver diets that are healthy, affordable, secure and safe for vast swathes of its population.
Since 2015, the number of people in need of emergency food assistance in the West African sub-region – which includes Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Mali, and Nigeria – has nearly quadrupled, jumping from seven to 27 million.
Oxfam’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Assalama Dawalack Sidi said the situation had been worsened by drought, floods, conflict, and the economic impacts of COVID-19, which have displaced millions and is “pushing them to the brink.”
“There is not enough food, let alone food that is nutritious enough for children. We must help them urgently because their health, their future and even their lives are at risk,” stressed Save the Children’s Director for West and Central Africa, Philippe Adapoe.
The United Nations has estimated that 6.3 million children aged 6-59 months will be acutely malnourished this year, an increase of almost 30 per cent from 2021.
With food increasingly scarce, families’ food sources, especially in the central Sahel, and families increasingly being forced to sell their assets, further jeopardising their productive capacity and the future of their children.
To add to the already dire situation, experts have predicted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could push food prices up to 20 per cent worldwide, “an unbearable increase for an already fragile population”.
The conflict will likely significantly reduce the availability of wheat in the six West African countries, which import at least a third or even as much as half of their consumption volumes from the conflicting countries.
While the crisis has shown no sign of abating during the past decade, international donations are drastically reducing. Last year, the humanitarian response plan for West Africa failed to reach half of its scope.
“The Sahel crisis is one of the worst humanitarian crises on a global scale and, at the same time, one of the least funded. “We fear that by redirecting humanitarian budgets to the Ukrainian crisis, we risk dangerously aggravating one crisis to respond to another,” said Mamadou Diop, the regional representative of Action Against Hunger.
According to the statement, Denmark has announced that it will postpone about half of its entire bilateral development assistance to Burkina Faso and Mali this year, in order to fund the reception of people displaced from Ukraine.
The National Universities Commission, (NUC), has given full accreditation to the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), for her Law programme.
According to the Public Relations Officer of ESUT, Mr Ikechukwu Ani, this is contained in a letter addressed to the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aloysius Okolie, on Wednesday in Enugu by the NUC.
Ani said that in the letter, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu said the report was contained in the result of the October/November 2024 accreditation of academic programmes in Nigerian universities.
Ani disclosed that other programmes in the institution accredited by the NUC include Master of Science in Business Management; Education Computer Science; Education Physics and Agricultural Engineering.
Other accredited programmes he said were Quantity Surveying; Urban and Regional Planning; and Applied Microbiology.
He said that the letter quoted Section 10 (1) of the Education National Minimum Standard and Establishment of Institutions, Act CAP E3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 as empowering the NUC to lay down minimum academic standards for all academic programmes taught in Nigerian universities.
He said the session also empowers the NUC to accredit such programmes.
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on Wednesday, remanded two persons, Olaitan Fasasi and Kehinde Tobiloba in a correctional facility over alleged attempted murder.
Fasasi, 40, and Tobiloba, 26, whose addresses were not provided, are being charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and membership of a secret society.
The Magistrate, Mr L.A Owolabi, did not take the plea of the defendants for want of jurisdiction.
Owolabi directed the police to forward the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.
He thereafter adjourned the case until May 31 for mention.
The Prosecutor, Josephine Ikhayere, told the court that the defendants committed the offences at about 5.02p.m on Feb. 15, at Mushin, Lagos.
She said that Fasasi, Tobiloba and others now at large, attempted to commit murder by shooting at a resident, Alfred Ademola.
“They armed themselves with a locally made gun. They belong to Eiye Confraternity, a group proscribed by law,”, she said.
Ikhayere said that the offences contravened Sections 230(1) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2012.
He said that the actions of the defendants also contravened Section 2(3)(a)(b)(c)(d) of the unlawful societies and Cultism Law of Lagos State Law.
Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, has inaugurated a 10-member fact-finding committee tasked with uncovering the root causes of the persistent attacks plaguing communities across the state.
Speaking during the inauguration ceremony on Tuesday in Jos, Governor Mutfwang charged the committee with conducting a comprehensive review of violent incidents from 2001 to date. “We thought that we should set up this high-powered fact-finding committee to look at the incessant attacks on our communities,” the governor stated.
According to Mutfwang, the committee is expected to perform an in-depth assessment of the recurring security breaches, determine the number of affected communities, and assess the extent of damage done over the years. “We want to understand the root causes and propose actionable recommendations for lasting peace, justice, and stability in the affected communities,” he said.
The committee’s mandate also includes establishing the number of casualties, identifying possible perpetrators and their motives, and uncovering potential routes used by bandits to access Plateau State. “Identify possible routes of bandits into the state and recommend measures to limit their access,” the governor added.
Chairman of the committee, retired Maj.-Gen. Rojas Nicholas, thanked the governor for the confidence reposed in the members. He pledged that the committee would approach its assignment with fairness and commitment. “We will do our best to produce a report that would befit its assignment,” Nicholas assured.
The committee is expected to submit its findings and recommendations in due course, with hopes that the report will provide a pathway to durable peace and security in the state.
NUC grants ESUT full accreditation for Law, 7 other programmes
Court remands 2 over alleged attempted murder
Plateau Governor Sets Up Committee to Probe Two Decades of Attacks
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