Today's top news: Nigeria, Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine

Nigeria

We are appealing for nearly US$400 million to prevent widespread hunger and malnutrition crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, in the north-east of the country.

The funding will allow humanitarian organizations to swiftly expand food and nutrition assistance and provide clean water and sanitation, healthcare, protection and logistics.

To kickstart the response, the UN has released a combined $18 million. The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has allocated $9 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Humanitarian Coordinator Matthias Schmale will be disbursing a further $9 million from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund.

This injection of funding accounts for less than five per cent of what humanitarian organizations require to address the most urgent food and nutrition needs.

Without a rapid and significant scale up of humanitarian assistance, more than a million people may face emergency levels of food insecurity in the region. Two million children under the age of five are likely to face wasting this year, the most immediate and life-threatening form of malnutrition. Some 700,000 children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition which means they are 11 times more likely to die compared to well-nourished children.

We will only be able to reach about 300,000 of the 4.3 million at-risk people in need of food assistance during the peak of the lean season.

Sudan

As people continue to flee across the country’s borders, Emergency Relief Chief Martin Griffiths has allocated $22 million from CERF to support humanitarian efforts in four neighbouring countries: Chad, the Central African Republic, Egypt and South Sudan.

The UN Refugee Agency says some 250,000 people have sought refuge outside Sudan since the fighting there erupted last month.

The Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Violet Kakyomya, visited refugees and returnees at the border in Koufroun today. The renewed violence in Sudan’s West Darfur state has driven some 30,000 people to cross the border into Chad in just the last week. Humanitarian agencies there are working closely with the Government to scale up the response.

Inside Sudan, the conflict has displaced more than 843,000 people, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Since the fighting broke out, the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 34 attacks on health care, leading to eight deaths and 18 injuries. Of these incidents, 21 impacted health facilities and 10 impacted health personnel.

WHO has delivered medicines and medical supplies to the State Ministry of Health and partners in the states of Aj Jazirah, Gedaref, Kassala, Northern State and River Nile. More than 30 tons of additional emergency health supplies are on their way to Wad Madani from Port Sudan.

Myanmar

Some humanitarian assistance is now reaching people affected by Cyclone Mocha in Rakhine State, where communities are racing to rebuild ahead of monsoon season. People are continuing to seek shelter in evacuation centres and monasteries.

Partners are awaiting approval to conduct coordinated field missions that would allow for wide-scale distribution of assistance based on observed needs.

In the past two days, the World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered emergency food aid to some 6,000 internally displaced people and those sheltering in evacuations centers in the Rakhine capital, Sittwe.

Some communities in need are receiving shelter support, and mobile health teams have been treating people in the field. 

Shortages and soaring prices of critical items – especially shelter materials – are hampering reconstruction efforts.

Fuel supplies have arrived in some areas, but there’s still an urgent need for public services – including health and water treatment – as well as additional funding for humanitarian needs.

Yesterday, Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths approved a $10 million allocation from CERF to support cyclone relief efforts in Myanmar.

Ukraine

Our colleagues on the ground continue assist front-line communities in the Kharkiv region in the east and the Kherson region in the south, which continue to experience frequent bombardments.

On 17 May, an inter-agency convoy led by the Humanitarian Coordinator, Denise Brown, delivered aid to a community in the very east of the Kharkiv region. More than 80 per cent of houses there are damaged. Water, gas and electricity supplies continue to be interrupted due to shelling.

The convoy delivered shelter materials, hygiene supplies and solar lamps to some 1,000 residents remaining in this community, which in February 2022 used to have 5,000 inhabitants.

Today, another inter-agency convoy delivered critical aid - including shelter materials, food and water, solar lamps, hygiene kits and clothing - to support nearly 3,000 residents of another front-line community in the Kherson region. Almost half of the remaining residents there are older people with limited access to most basic services.

After months of fighting, Ukraine is now one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world. Kharkiv and Kherson regions are the most affected. In Kharkiv, nearly 300,000 hectares of agricultural land needs humanitarian demining, according to local authorities. Mine risks create additional challenges for repairing damaged houses and critical infrastructure and resuming farming, and both regions had large agriculture industries before the full-scale war.

The humanitarian community will complement efforts to scale demining activities on which the livelihood of many people in the regions depend.