By Samuel
The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has identified Nigeria as one of the African countries with a staggering food crisis situation this year.
The surge in hunger, it said, stemmed from long-standing religious and ethnic violence, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other African countries said to have suffered similar fate, according to the report are The Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan.
A Bloomberg report which cited the food agency described Africa as the “world’s most food-insecure continent”.
The FAO revealed that about 21.8 million people were acutely food insecure in Africa.
According to its report, the global pandemic has worsened the situation, as Nigeria itself was already a large importer of food.
It read, “In Nigeria, working the land can be a dangerous occupation because of longstanding religious and ethnic tensions and, more recently, organized crime.
“That’s as farmers already were having to contend with flooding or drought. It’s all now hitting agriculture just when the country needs it most.
“The pandemic has triggered a surge in food prices in a nation that imports more than a tenth of its food supply.”
Alluding to a prediction by the Niger State Governor in April, the report also detailed the struggles of importers to access forex, after the global crash in crude oil prices and the resultant cash-strapped foreign reserve.
“With 200 million people, Nigeria is the most populous country in the world’s most food-insecure continent.
“Producing food at home matters more as importers struggle to access dollars to pay for shipments from overseas after an oil price crash sapped foreign-currency reserves.
“We are heading toward famine and starvation,” the governor had said.