NIGERIA (WFP/CNN) - More than 5 million people are facing extreme hunger across northeastern Nigeria, and terror group Boko Haram is making it even worse. People should be planting next season's crop but the Boko Haram insurgency is keeping them from their fields.
According to the UN-affiliated World Food Programme (WFP), torrential rains and seasonal severe weather are making roads impassable, cutting off food assistance to the neediest in most remote places.
The Nigerian government established the Gubio Camp, which currently shelters about 19,000 people, more than half of which are women and children. WFP distributes food and nutritional supplements to the youngest ones.
It is using the smartphone based platform "Scope," which registers people and calculate the assistance they require.
Joshua Palla, 61, is one of the beneficiaries. "During one rainy season, Boko Haram invaded our village and we run towards this mountain and stayed there for about six months. We have no food there and have drinking water from ponds. We were eating tree leaves, and wild fruits. We suffered a lot as we left our home without carrying anything,” said Palla, a WFP aid recipient.
Palla and his family of 13 children hid in the mountains for six months escaping from Boko Haram.
''Malnutrition is one of the greatest challenges in this area here. And within this camp specifically we have seen the rates drop from over 30 percent to about less than 10 percent. And this has been the result of the food assistance that we have provided in this location,” said Martin Ahimbisibwe of the WFP Nigeria.
Copyright 2017 World Food Programme via CNN. All rights reserved.
