Boko Haram

The number of hungry people in northeastern Nigeria has dropped by half, to 2.6 million, since mid-year, according to analysis by regional groups, which give credit to improved security and scaled-up humanitarian assistance.

A UN official working on humanitarian aid in Africa warns of "a famine unlike any we have seen anywhere" in northeastern Nigeria unless aid is provided immediately, says the Washington Post. "The staggering hunger crisis created by (Boko Haram) insurgents has been largely hidden from view."

After two years of a scorched-earth campaign by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, northeast Nigeria faces a “severe hunger " emergency, says the LA Times. Up to 50,000 children could starve and 250,000 more are dealing with extreme malnutrition, according to UNICEF. And yet before Boko Haram, northeast Nigeria was considered the country’s breadbasket, rich in maize and millet, as well as vegetables.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest and most-populous country, needs help feeding refugees fleeing armed conflict in the northeastern corner of the country, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in a quarterly report on food insecurity around the world.