The federal government through the Economic Community of West African States has donated $1 million to assist victims of violent conflicts in the North-East and North-West regions.

In a statement on Saturday, the government sought the collaboration of the World Food Programme in Nigeria to apply the fund for alleviating food and nutrition needs in Katsina, Zamfara and Borno.

The statement was jointly signed by Halima Oyelade of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Godfrey Alozie of ECOWAS and Kelechi Onyemaobi of WFP.

According to the statement, the programme targeted 840 food-insecure households (some 4,196 persons) in Zamfara, Katsina and Borno with food assistance.

“The target beneficiaries receive an average cash transfer of NGN 27,000 in their prepaid bank cards or WFP SCOPE cards every month to buy their preferred food from local markets,” they said.

“These are done to prevent acute malnutrition in children in the first 1,000 days of their lives; the programme also provides nutrition assistance to children 6-23 months old and to pregnant and breastfeeding women from vulnerable and food-insecure households.

“Some 14,070 children and 1,932 pregnant/breastfeeding women receive specialised nutritious food in the three project states,” they said.

The statement quoted Ronald Sibanda, WFP Representative and Country Director, as saying that the contribution of the government of Nigeria, through ECOWAS, came at a critical point as conflict and the impact of climate change continued to drive hunger in the country.

“In these affected states, persistent conflict, climate shocks, high food prices and reduced household purchasing power undermine people’s ability to feed themselves.

“WFP welcomes this contribution which underpins efforts to continue providing life-saving food and nutrition support and livelihoods assistance to those most in need in the conflict-affected states,” Mr Sibanda said.

(NAN)