Humanitarian Crises: UK Pledges £47m Aid To Nigeria, Others

By Onwuka Gerald

The United Kingdom (UK) has pledged the sum of £47 million as aid to provide food, nutrition, water and shelter for impoverished families in nine countries and regions.

They said that £7m out of the funds will be issued to Nigeria via the World Food Programme and is targeted to get to 430,000 individuals for food support and nutrition support for 108 days.

The revelation was made known in a statement on Thursday, by the Deputy British High Commission, tagged, “COVID-19: UK pledges an extra £47 million of aid for families hit by hunger around the world including £7m to Nigeria”.

The statement highlighted that new data from the UN showed that humanitarian crises were worsening around the world, as 235 million people expected to require immediate assistance as compared to 175m people at the beginning of 2020.

It said that food, nutrition, water, childhood vaccinations and shelter are all needed to assist families facing humanitarian crisis in the world.

“Many Nigerians affected by the conflict in the north are suffering from lack of food, insecurity and high malnutrition rate,” the statement continued.

The UK in the statement, said it was lobbying international donors to assist in providing more funding, as well as requested for all conflict parties to allow safe, sustained, and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in need of assistance.

“The amount of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the northeast Nigeria is also increasing, having risen to 8.9 million people as well make way into 2021″, the statement added.

Meanwhile, speaking on the pledge, the UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab stated that, “Hundreds of millions of people living in the world’s largest humanitarian crises are finding it difficult to survive, threatened by conflict, starvation and the worst of all, the COVID-19 pandemic.