The new Country Representative for Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of United Nations (UN), Fred Kafeero, said 600,000 persons have been added to the category of hungry group due to COVID-19 impact in the Northeast.
He said Boko Haram had claimed over 32,000 lives with property worth $9.2bn (about N3.42tn) destroyed in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
Lamenting COVID-19 impacts at the weekend, after inspecting livelihood projects in Gongolong Community of Borno State, Kafeero said: “This is a big challenge for all of us. This country has had Boko Haram insurgency for 11 years. On top of that, we got this challenge of COVID-19 pandemic.”
He said the UN had assessed COVID- 19 impacts on agricultural and means of livelihoods and was working on how it could assist in the area of food security.
He said FAO, in partnership with other international non-governmental organisations, would help hungry people have could access to food.
“It’s not like we are only targeting Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) or refugees, but also the host communities….Nigeria has the largest herd of livestock in the Northeast sub-region. It has vast fertile arable land, with which various crops could be produced and processed to add more values to peoples’ lives.
He said FAO always provided technical expertise in the agricultural and livestock sectors of Nigeria’s economy.
Follow our socials Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google News.
