Just in, the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affiars (OCHA), Peter Lundberg said this at the launch of the 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan for Nigeria’s northeast region in Abuja. 

“A projected 5.1 million people will face serious food shortages as the conflict and risk of unexploded improvised devices prevented farmers planting for a third year in a row, causing a major food crisis,” he revealed.

He said $1billion was needed in 2017 to address the needs of those in crisis in the three most affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
The statement said 
“During the course of 2016 as the Nigerian Armed Forces pushed back Boko Haram held areas, the scale of human suffering became more apparent and humanitarian community scaled up the responses.
Narrative on this humanitarian crisis can no longer be ignored and we are appealing to the international community to help us prevent the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians over the coming 12 months.
This is the largest crisis on the African continent and I am confident that with the support of the international community and the private sector, we can begin to bring hope to the people of the northeast.”

The Nigerian Minister of State for Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said the scale of destruction and the new skills required to ensure a return to narmalcy, requires unprecedented levels of patnership between the international humanitarian community and government of Nigeria coming together.

While commending the international community for appealing for resources to meet the lifesaving needs of nearly 7 million people in 2017, she added that Nigeria “will continue to demostrate strong commitment to working together with international communities.”
Ahmed said…
“We will endeavor to provide an environment in which humanitarians will be able to undertake priority activities.
The government will continue to put funding into jointly prioritized sectoral activities so that there will be no gaps in the humanitarian reponse.”