49,000 children may die in Nigeria this year

Nigeria: About 475,000 children from the four countries bordering Lake Chad including Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad face the risk of "severe acute malnutrition" due to drought and a seven-year insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, says UNICEF.

According to the organization, which is appealing for $US308 million to manage the crisis, among the 475,000 considered under risk, about 49,000 from Borno state, Nigeria  where the deadly terrorist group Boko Haram hold sway, will die this year if they do not receive treatment.

UNICEF said although, to-date it had only received $US41 million which is about 13 per cent of what it needs to help those affected in the four countries bordering Lake Chad.

Boko Haram had occupied a large amount of area in North east Nigeria at the beginning of 2015 but has since been pushed back over the last 18 months by military assaults by a joint military task force from the four countries as most of the terrorist fighters are now hiding in the vast Sambisa forest, in Borno state.

According to UNICEF, aid officials are beginning to put together the scale of the humanitarian disaster left behind in the group's wake after the Nigerian government forces captured and secured the territory

"Towns and villages are in ruins and communities have no access to basic services," UNICEF said in a report.

Almost two thirds of hospitals and clinics had been partially or totally damaged in Borno.

 

In spite of the military gains in the North east of Nigeria, UNICEF said, around 2.2 million people are still trapped in areas under the control of Boko Haram.

As much as 15,000 people is believed to has been killed by the Islamist sect since it began its insurgency in 2009.