ICC Note: The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) reports that nearly a quarter-million children in northern Nigeria are suffering from severe malnutrition and starvation. These are children living in areas of the country that were formerly controlled by terrorist group Boko Haram; thousands are displaced across Nigeria, due to the violence caused by Boko Haram. Since it’s the beginning of its bloody insurgency in 2009, Boko Haram has displaced more than two million Nigerians, thereby also creating a humanitarian crisis of mass starvation. There are 244,000 children suffering from extreme hunger, and on average of 134 children are dying every day. There are humanitarian groups working in Nigeria, attempting to provide aid for these suffering victims of Boko Haram, but they do not have sufficient means and resources to deal with how large this problem has become. Most of these starving victims of the terrorist group are Christians, whom Boko Haram has historically targeted.
07/19/2016, Borno, Nigeria (BBC News) – Almost a quarter of a million children in parts of Nigeria’s Borno state formerly controlled by Boko Haram are suffering from severe malnutrition, the UN children’s agency says.
Tens of thousands will die if treatment does not reach them soon, Unicef warns.
In areas where Boko Haram militants had been in control, it found people without water, food or sanitation.
Last month, a charity said people fleeing Boko Haram had starved to death.
The Islamist group’s seven-year rebellion has left 20,000 people dead and more than two million displaced.
Nigeria’s military is involved in a large-scale offensive against the group.
Unicef says that as more areas in north-eastern Nigeria become accessible to humanitarian help, the extent of the nutrition crisis affecting children is becoming more apparent.
It said that of the 244,000 children found to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno, almost one in five would die if they were not reached with treatment.
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