UN to cut food aid for Nigeria crisis as funding falls short

JOHANNESBURG: A United Nations official in Nigeria says food aid will be cut for more than a million hungry people affected by Boko Haram's insurgency if promised funding from the international community doesn't arrive.

Peter Lundberg, the deputy humanitarian coordinator, wrote in the French newspaper Le Monde that just 15 percent of the UN aid appeal for one of the world's worst humanitarian crises has been received. He says $242 million is needed over the next six months to help 1.8 million people.

"Without sufficient financing, the World Food Program will have to reduce its vital support," he wrote Friday.

He says a half-million children in northeast Nigeria have severe malnutrition.

WFP's Nigeria office did not respond to a request for more details on what would be cut and when.

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