75,000 children in Nigeria could die from hunger over the next year

It was the missing schoolgirls who first made an obscure Nigerian Islamist group into a household name.

More than 200 students were kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents in northern Borno state in April 2014. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign was born and soon mushroomed into an international cause. Celebrities and political figures like the first lady Michelle Obama tweeted appeals for the release of the young women. That’s when the world got serious about defeating the militants. There was suddenly more money, more drones and more interest in a remote stretch of West Africa.

Two years later, that interest has faded. There are other, more advanced Islamist groups to think about. There is a US presidential campaign in which Africa is not exactly playing a defining role.

But while the world has looked away, the crisis in northeastern Nigeria has morphed into something much more deadly. Insurgents are no longer the biggest threat. Now, it’s hunger.

More than 3 million people are affected by what is becoming one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters. UNICEF has warned that as many as 75,000 children
 could die in Borno and two adjacent states over the next year unless more assistance arrives.

But it has been incredibly difficult for groups to raise funds for food or health care for these victims, who have fled Boko Haram or are trapped in towns still threatened by the group. UNICEF, for example, has raised only $28 million of the $115 million it has asked for – a weak showing compared to its other country-specific appeals. At the UN General Assembly in September, the crisis was barely mentioned. Even Nigeria’s own media has focused on other matters, like a nationwide economic crisis.

It wasn’t the kind of sudden natural disaster that spurred immediate interest. And the story line of the Nigerian schoolgirls – nearly all of them still missing – has faded along with the hope of finding them.

“In some ways, Nigeria is seen as an old story,” said Simon Taylor, deputy head of office for the UN Office  for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nigeria.

COURTESY: WASHINGTON POST