Malnutrition is threatening to kill about 75,000 children in Nigeria’s embattled northeast, a region that had been under siege by insurgents.

Three out of the six states in the region, Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, have ravaged by Boko Haram Islamists since 2009.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that unless urgent action was taken, starvation would compound the problems of the children.

The children are part of seven million persons in need of humanitarian assistance in the region that has been ravaged by over six years of insurgency.

The Acting Humanitarian Coordinator of the Agency, Mr. Peter Lundberg, said the seven million persons were part of the 14.8 million people affected by Boko Haram activities in the region.

He said that 400,000 out of this seven million were children, with 75,000 in critical condition.

Gross inadequate funding for humanitarian aid, especially food supply needs which is puts at $5.1 million, is a major problem.

Reports say that 240,000 children are severely malnourished with their ‘skin over their bones.’

“They are so severely malnourished that if nothing is being done they are at a very high risk of dying.

“About one out of five of these children will die if they don’t receive this special support that they need.”

At least two million people, mostly women and children, have no homes because of the activities of insurgents.

The government, with the assistance of international donors, has been struggling to resettle the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are currently in more than 30 camps in Borno state.

The food crisis in the area had been compounded because farming and fishing had been stalled due to the war against the insurgents.

According to experts, unless the remnants of Boko Haram were cleared, farming activities would remain comatose. (NAN)

•Photo shows children in an IDP Camp.

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