The families, comprising 88,180 individuals, were affected by last September’s floods that devastated the Maiduguri metropolis.
According to the bank, the $1 million contribution is from its Special Fund to support emergency food response for flood-affected communities in the Northeast.
Distributing the relief materials yesterday in Maiduguri, the WFP Country Director in Nigeria, David Stevenson, stated: “Our support comes at a critical time, when humanitarian funding is in short supply, and the country faces alarming high rates of food insecurity.”
He lamented that communities that started rebuilding their lives were, however, struck by floods again, displacing about 1.5 million Maiduguri residents.
Stevenson noted that the recent floods had compounded years of prior displacements, food insecurity and hardship, with disastrous consequences by pushing hunger levels much higher.
The AfDB Director General in Nigeria, Abdul Kamara, said: “This additional funding will mitigate the suffering of vulnerable people on the brink of acute hunger,” stating that more people required humanitarian assistance.
