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Food Crisis: UN warns that 82 million Nigerians at risk of hunger

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The United Nations has urged the Nigerian government to address climate change, pest infestations, and other risks to agricultural productivity after predicting, once more, that 82 million Nigerians, or around 64% of the nation’s population, may be hungry by 2030.

The forecast follows a sustained increase in the nation’s food costs. Nigeria’s food inflation rate surpassed the 40.53 increase from the previous month to a new high of 40.66% in May 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Since records have been kept in 1996, this spike in food costs constitutes the biggest annual increase. Nigerian food inflation has historically ranged from -17.50% in January 2000 to an average of 13.42%.

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated in 2023 that between June and August of 2024, at least 2.6 million Nigerians in the states of Borno, Sokoto, and Zamfara, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, may experience a food crisis.

A government-led Cadre Harmonisé research published in March 2024 estimates that the number of people suffering from extreme food insecurity in the states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe is close to 4.8 million, the largest number in seven years. Additionally, organised labour expressed alarm about the nation’s escalating food costs and fuel scarcity as Nigerian workers celebrated May Day in 2024, claiming that the existing state of affairs threatened workers’ survival.

Olisa Agbakoba, a senior advocate for Nigeria, recently issued a warning that the country may soon see a hunger riot and urged the federal government to take immediate action.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s resident humanitarian coordinator, Taofiq Braimoh, a UN representative, stated recently at the CropWatch Abuja launch: “The government of Nigeria, in collaboration with others, conducts an annual food security survey.” The results this year are concerning: over 80–82 million Nigerians are at risk of severe food crisis by 2030, and about 22 million may experience food insecurity in 2023.

“Nigeria, like many countries, grapples with food insecurity, climate change, unreliable water patterns, pest infestations, and other threats to agricultural productivity. As an agrarian society, our farms’ success directly impacts food availability for our population. Leveraging technology is crucial to strengthening our agriculture sector and ensuring food security.”

The continent has contributed approximately four per cent to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide – significantly less than countries like China and the United States. Yet, African nations rank among the most vulnerable to the repercussions of climate change.

Musings From Abroad

UN head slams Sudan’s RSF as Britain seeks Security Council action

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While Britain announced it would work for a United Nations Security Council resolution on the conflict, which has been going on for more than 18 months, United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has denounced reported attacks on civilians by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Friday.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in mid-April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a scheduled handover to civilian administration.

The RSF is mostly to blame for the waves of ethnically motivated violence that have resulted from the current conflict.
According to activists, the RSF massacred at least 124 people in a village in El Gezira State last month, making it one of the bloodiest occurrences of the conflict.

The army is allegedly arming citizens in Gezira, according to the RSF. In the past, the RSF has denied causing harm to civilians in Sudan and blamed renegade actors for the action.

“Reports of large numbers of civilians being killed, detained and displaced, acts of sexual violence against women and girls, the looting of homes and markets and the burning of farms,” a U.N. spokesperson said, horrifying Guterres.

“Such acts may constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Perpetrators of such serious violations must be held accountable,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

According to Britain, which took over as the Security Council’s November presidency on Friday, the 15-member council will convene on Sudan on November 12 to talk about “scaling up aid delivery and ensuring greater protection of civilians by all sides.”

“We will be shortly introducing a draft Security Council resolution … to drive forward progress on this,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told a press conference.

She stated that the draft would concentrate on “developing a compliance mechanism for the warring parties commitments they made on the protection of civilians in Jeddah over a year ago in 2023 and ways to support mediation efforts to deliver a ceasefire, even if we start local ceasefires before moving to a national one.”

For a resolution to be enacted, it must have at least nine votes and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

The action was taken because the U.N. and aid organisations’ three-month permission from Sudanese authorities to utilise the Adre border crossing with Chad to provide humanitarian aid to Darfur is about to expire in mid-November.

Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed stated on Monday that the army-backed administration is dedicated to enabling humanitarian supplies throughout the nation, even in areas under RSF control.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, stated on Monday that it would be “inappropriate to put pressure on” the Sudanese administration to decide whether the Adre crossing would be open past mid-November.

“We’re categorically opposed to the politicization of humanitarian assistance,” he said. “We believe that any humanitarian assistance should be conducted and delivered solely with the central authorities in the loop.”

 

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Musings From Abroad

Ivory Coast’s Ouattara becomes IMF executive board member

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Wautabouna Ouattara of Ivory Coast has been appointed as the third director for Sub-Saharan Africa on the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which strengthens the region’s influence in policy-making by serving as the lender of last resort.

There are now 25 members of the executive board, which is in charge of the fund’s daily operations, thanks to the new role.

“The addition of a third African chair to our Board reflects the continent’s tremendous progress in developing its human and economic potential,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement on Friday.

After an election, an additional regional representative was formally appointed to the board, according to the IMF. It is its first expansion since 1992 when the Soviet bloc broke up and two postings were established for the former Soviet Union nations.

Despite having 18% of the world’s population, Africa’s 54 nations—the largest bloc in terms of number among the IMF’s 191 members—only have 6.5% of voting rights. About half of that comes from Sub-Saharan Africa’s vote portion.

A year ago, in Marrakech, Morocco, the new position for the area on the board was unveiled. However, detractors claim that, while the region struggles with debt, it does not adequately meet its requirements.

As nations like Zambia and Ghana restructured their loans and others, like Kenya, looked to the Fund for greater liquidity support because of rising debt interest obligations, the IMF has been playing an increasingly important role in the management of economies in Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.

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