Kitty van der Heijden (middle) at a UNICEF-supported stabilisation centre in Maiduguri, Borno state, where malnourished children are fighting to survive | Photo credit: UNICEF Nigeria
The US State Department has provided $5 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to tackle acute malnutrition in Nigeria’s north-west geopolitical zone.
In a statement on Thursday, the US embassy said UNICEF would use the funds to provide ready-to-use food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies for at least 70,000 children.
In May, UNICEF said Nigeria had the highest number of malnourished children in Africa and the second in the world.
Nemat Hajeebhoy, nutrition chief, said 600,000 children were suffering from acute malnutrition, with half of them at risk of developing severe acute malnutrition.
Advertisement
Hajeebhoy spoke against the backdrop of an appeal for funding by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to tackle a food and nutrition crisis in northern region.
The UN agency sought $300 million to respond adequately to the issue.
The appeal came as OCHA announced a gradual scale back of its presence in Nigeria due to a funding shortfall after the US cut back on foreign aid.
Advertisement
Last year, the US funded 47 percent of global humanitarian aid.
After US President Donald Trump took office in January, he froze nearly all foreign aid programmes, withdrew the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a key player in global humanitarian funding.
In July, congress approved a White House-proposed rescissions package that zeroed out 2025 funding for critical humanitarian programmes, including $142 million in core resources for UNICEF.
UN agencies raised concerns over the global consequences of the deep cuts to humanitarian funding.
Advertisement
The US embassy said the latest $5 million UNICEF donation affirms America’s global leadership, strength, and compassion.
