The French Ambassador to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blatmann, says her country has disbursed €3m to the World Food Programme to tackle food shortages and malnutrition among children in Nigeria’s North-East.
The envoy said the €3m was part of a total of €6.9m that France had so far budgeted for humanitarian aid in Nigeria, having spent €7.7m for such aid in 2022.
“We have so far budgeted €6.9m for humanitarian aid in Nigeria in 2023, and out of this, €3m is given to WFP to address food shortage and malnutrition among children in the North-East,” the envoy disclosed to newsmen in Maiduguri on Monday.
“This amount is subject to upward review, depending on the circumstances concerning food insurficiency and malnutrition in the country,” she added.
Blatmann said France, over the last three years, in conjunction with humanitarian aid organisations, executed 28 humanitarian aid projects in Nigeria’s North-East with €21m.
She said over one million vulnerable people, mostly in terror-torn Borno State, benefitted from such projects.
The French ambassador said in 2022, France spent €500m on humanitarian aid across the world, out of which €150m was used to tackle food shortages across countries suffering the problem.
Blatmann was in Borno State to assess the positive impact of her country’s humanitarian aid on women and children with acute moderate malnutrition in the state.
The WFP Country Director in Nigeria, David Stevenson, reiterated earlier reports that over 4.4 million people in Nigeria’s North-East risk food shortages in 2023.
Stevenson said the WFP targets over two million people in the subregion, 1.4 million of them in Borno State alone, in its humanitarian aid programmes, in it efforts at tackling the problem.
