Around Lake Chad a horrible crisis is underway with around half a million children suffering from “severe acute malnutrition”. Of those half million, around 49,000 are expected to die this year if aid and care does not reach them.

A 7 year Boko Haram insurgency and drought have led to this terrible position according the to Huffington Post.

The Huff reported:

… to date, UNICEF said it had only received $41 million, 13 percent of what it needs to help those affected in the four countries – Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon – that border Lake Chad.

And continued that

UNICEF said that as Nigerian government forces captured and secured territory, aid officials were starting to piece together the scale of the humanitarian disaster left behind in the group’s wake. “Towns and villages are in ruins and communities have no access to basic services,” UNICEF said in a report.

In Borno, nearly two thirds of hospitals and clinics had been partially or completely destroyed and three-quarters of water and sanitation facilities needed to be rehabilitated.

Despite the military gains, UNICEF said, 2.2 million people remain trapped in areas under the control of Boko Haram – which is trying to establish a caliphate in the southern reaches of the Sahara – or are staying in camps, fearful of going home.

This is no small crisis and be it by donating to Unicef or other reputable charities, we need to up our gain and attention to stop the death of these children.

You can see Unicef’s page about the crisis in the region here: http://www.unicef.org/appeals/nigeria_crisis.html

Read more on the Huff: http://huff.to/2bXE3gW