BY AFOLABI GAMBARI
Although the European Union has been in a running battle with some African countries, which include Nigeria, on the illegal migration of people from Africa into Europe, the EU has not blinded its sight to humanitarian needs of the continent, even with Nigeria as its focus. Latest reports from the UNICEF in Nigeria indicate that the EU is allocating an additional €300,000 (N102m) in humanitarian aid to provide life-saving treatment to undernourished children in Nigeria’s northwestern states of Sokoto and Zamfara. It is public knowledge that violence and forced displacement have persisted in both states in recent months, despite assurances on normality by the Nigerian government, with the situation deteriorating by the day. It is estimated that 280,000 children under five years of age in Sokoto and Zamfara are suffering from severe malnutrition, which is a life-threatening condition. Children are particularly vulnerable, given the low vaccination rates against common childhood illnesses. In addition, both states regularly face cholera, yellow fever and meningitis outbreaks, while malaria is endemic and measles is recurrent.
The EU funds, according to the reports, will allow UNICEF to provide undernourished children and their mothers with immediate nutrition treatment, in addition to mobile health teams that will be sent out to strengthen the capacity of health facilities in delivering comprehensive basic health care services which include supportive medical supervision.
“European Union is stepping up its humanitarian assistance in Nigeria to help in addressing without delay the child under-nutrition emergency that the northwest area is facing. Our funding will contribute to deliver the much-needed treatment for children and improve access to basic health care. Timely help from the international community is essential to save children’s lives,” the Union’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, said last week.
Northwest Nigeria has seen an increase in violence over the last months. This has exacerbated the already existing dire nutrition situation. As the clashes would also not cease, many people have fled their homes in search of safety, leaving everything behind, including their fields and their main source of subsistence.
The EU reckons that with communities in the area struggling with the seasonal depletion of food reserves in-between harvests, the current lack of access to their fields means that they are likely to miss the next harvest, thereby putting further pressure on already strained food resources. Yet, situation in both states have remained dire. Medical facilities have been working at maximum capacity to deal with cases of severe acute malnutrition, even as mortality rates in such facilities are very high and medical care is often sought late. Insecurity has also rendered many facilities obsolete or not accessible. In all of this, however, the government has only made political pronouncements that either achieve nothing or altogether drive hope far away.
Nigeria has the EU to thank, nonetheless, for having been consistent as one of the leading contributors of humanitarian aid in the country. On record, the EU has allocated almost €245 million to help the needy people since 2014. Already, it has spent €28 million, emphasizing its policy of rendering immediate assistance through humanitarian aid funding that provides succor for the most vulnerable internally displaced people and host communities in Nigeria, as well as for the refugees in other countries like Chad, Niger and Cameroon who are affected by the Lake Chad Basin crisis.
The European Union and is the world’s leading donor of humanitarian aid. Its relief assistance is an expression of European solidarity with people in need around the world as it aims to save lives, prevent and alleviate human suffering and safeguard the integrity and human dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises.
Through the European Commission’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian aid Operations department (ECHO), the EU, which has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and a global network of field offices, helps millions of victims of conflict and disasters every year. It would be a paradox, ultimately, if the EU keeps pouring aids on the troubled Northwest Nigeria and the government keeps faltering in providing adequate security for the area.
*Afolabi Gambari, Journalist, Environmentalist, Social Commentator writes from Lagos, Nigeria Tel: +2348064651922, +2348116706849
