By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs. Emmanuelle Blatmann, says the government of France has budgeted the sum of €6.9m to tackle food shortages and malnutrition among children in Nigeria’s North-East.
Mrs. Blatman added the French Government had aslo budgeted for €7.7m fir humanitarian aid in Nigeria in 2022
She disclosed this on Monday in Maiduguri while briefing journalists after inspecting WFP interventions facilities located Muna IDPs Camp Clinic I at Mum’s Garage IDPs Camp Maiduguri .
The French Envoy also noted that her visit to Borno state was to assess the impact of French government interventions projects and programmes or facilities executed by the World Food Programme (WFP) intervention on acute and middle malnutrition among IDP children and mothers from 6 LGAs of Borno State, namely, Mafa, Bama, Dikwa, Konduga, Ngala and Gwoza.
Mrs. Blatmann after her interaction with some mothers of malnourished children at the Muna IDP Camp Clinic WFP facility, said there was the need for additional support to tackle multiple drivers of the conflict or insurgency such as hunger, food insecurity, health, sanitation , agriculture and climate change.
She assured that French government will continue to support and invest in Nigeria, especially, in the North East region to bring peace, and improve the lives of the vulnerable people .
Ambassador Blatmann also revealed that her country has financed and intervened in 28 different projects worth 21 million Euros to address humanitarian needs, food security and health issues for about one million people in the last 3 years in North East
“In 2022, France spent €500m on humanitarian aid across the world, out of which €150m was used to tackle food shortages across countries suffering the problem .The €3m was part of a total of €6.9m that France had so far budgeted for humanitarian aid in Nigeria, having spent €7.7m for such aid in 2022.
“We have so far budgeted €6.9m for humanitarian aid in Nigeria in 2023, and out of this, €3m is given to WFP to address food shortage and malnutrition among children in the North East.
“This amount is subject to upward review, depending on the circumstances concerning food insurficiency and malnutrition in the country,. France, over the last three years, in conjunction with humanitarian aid development organisations, executed 28 humanitarian aid projects in Nigeria’s North-East with €21m.
“We often hear about donor fatigue and humanitarian assistance is going down, so am here to prove that for France is the opposite. We are moving ahead, we are increasing our assistance in collaboration with Government, UN agencies, we are here to help and show our solidarity ” Blatmann said.
She however said that following the proliferation of the lingering crisis in Ukraine, French government through the World Food Programme (WFP) and other partners has set up an initiative to mitigate the impact of the crisis with regards to access to food among vulnerable and displaced people in African countries, particularly, Borno state.
Speaking also during the ambassadors visit in Maiduguri, the Country Director and World Food Programme (WFP) Representative to Nigeria, Mr. David Stevenson said the organisation, has supported 2.1 million people under the humanitarian response plans with support from the French government.
He added that the interventions or response plans targets children and mothers that are malnourished , provision of agricultural inputs food supplements for mothers of malnourished children and also build capacity of nursing mothers to learn nutrition techniques among others
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