By Rabiu Sani
Food
Maiduguri, March 15, 2018 (NAN) The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says the Federal Government’s Emergency Food Intervention programme is on course.
The agency made this known after it took delivery of about 70 per cent of the 6,000 tonnes of rice donated by the Peoples Republic of China.
NEMA’s Northeast Zonal Coordinator, Mr Bashir Garga, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri on Thursday, explained that the consignment consisted of 50 bags of rice.
Cue in audio (Garga)
“It was a transition from the wet ration we used to have in camps and host communities where there is a general cooking for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
“This is a dry ration measured with a basket to be given to IDPs on household and on door-to-door basis; we are not going to expose the IDPs to the strain of going to collect food in queues; they will be given at their doorsteps.
“It is intended to last for a month; when it is exhausted, it is replenished thereafter.’’
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He explained that the programme was designed to provide food assistance to millions of displaced people and control hunger and malnutrition occasioned by humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram insurgency.
The coordinator explained that two formal and one transition IDP camps were registered in Adamawa; two in Yobe, 10 in Maiduguri metropolis and over 22 other camps in liberated communities.
The Coordinator said that the agency was working in close collaboration with the World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation, and other relevant organisations to address the humanitarian crisis in the region.
NAN reports that the Federal Government had in June 2017, released more than 40,000 tonnes of assorted food items for distribution to displaced persons in camps and host communities in the affected states.
United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs statistic shows that some 936,200 persons of the 3.4 million people, who need nutrition support, were reached with food security intervention in 2017.
It will be recalled that Saudi Arabia has also pledged to donate food items worth 10 million US dollars to support victims of insurgency in the Northeast region. (NAN)
RSA/HAS/YEE
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Edited by Hajia Sani/Emmanuel Yashim