With war, violence, 3.5 million people displaced, and food inflation at 30%, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates 31.8 million people in Nigeria are “food insecure,” the highest number of any country in the world, according to The Guardian.
One third of the country survives on less than $2 per day. The period from June to September is considered the “lean season” when food stocks traditionally are at the lowest, and the FAO warns that as many as 26.5 million face acute hunger by the end of September. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) opened clinics in seven states to treat child malnutrition and were so overwhelmed that the hallways became filled with children on mattresses. MSF treated 52,000 cases of acute malnutrition last year where 2,693 died, but this year their numbers are double.
