{"id":22699,"date":"2016-09-26T16:06:19","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T16:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/africa\/?post_type=one_press&p=22699"},"modified":"2016-09-26T16:06:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T16:06:19","slug":"one-campaign-world-leaders-must-act-now-on-crisis-in-lake-chad-basin","status":"publish","type":"one_press","link":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/africa\/press\/one-campaign-world-leaders-must-act-now-on-crisis-in-lake-chad-basin\/","title":{"rendered":"ONE Campaign: World leaders must act now on crisis in Lake Chad Basin"},"content":{"rendered":"

49,000 children will die of starvation in northeast Nigeria by the end of the year without emergency food aid.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Emergency effort must pave path for long term solutions.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

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NEW YORK– Emergency food aid and other investments are badly needed in northeast Nigeria to keep tens of thousands of children from starvation and disease, warns anti-poverty group The ONE Campaign. <\/i>As <\/i>world leaders gathered today for an emergency high-level meeting to address the food and malnutrition crisis in the area, Bono, the lead singer of U2 and the co-founder of The ONE Campaign, commented<\/b>:<\/span><\/p>\n

“The world is facing multiple crises right now that are in large part symptoms of an unholy trinity: the \u2018three extremes\u2019 of extreme ideology, extreme poverty and extreme climate. Many of these crises are not getting the attention they deserve, but in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, where I visited just a few weeks ago, they are warning that 49,000 kids will die in the next few months if emergency food aid does\u00a0not arrive. This is madness. Images are coming out of the area of children on the brink of starvation \u2013 and world leaders are standing by, refusing to provide the funds needed to avert this disaster. Of the $739 million needed, the world is 75% short and these children\u2019s lives are hanging in the balance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaders gathering in New York today for the Lake Chad Emergency Appeal must step-up and provide what is needed. We must address this immediate crisis, while also paving the pathway for longer-term solutions and interventions that can stop the endless cycle of conflict and poverty \u2013 and women and girls must be at the centre of this pathway forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that the excellent Zainab Ahmed has just been appointed as Minister of Budget and National Planning\u00a0to drive all-of-government delivery of humanitarian relief. To succeed she will need great partners from across Naija and beyond.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Nigerian philanthropist and businessman Aliko Dangote, who recently hosted Bono in North East Nigeria, has also called for a \u2018Marshall Plan\u2019 scale of investment for the region to deal with the short term humanitarian crisis and the long term jobs crisis. He has contributed so far, through the Aliko Dangote Foundation, over $10 million of his own funds to provide food relief to Internally Displaced people (IDPs), and construction materials to help rebuilding efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes to Editors:<\/b><\/p>\n

Background on the Lake Chad emergency<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n