The ‘largest crisis on the continent’ is happening in Nigeria, to Nigerians

Actor, Djimon Honsou, visits Maiduguri to bring attention to urgent malnutrition crisis, Oxfam calls for greater provision of emergency food assistance.



The ongoing crisis in Northeast Nigeria has been described by the UN as “the largest crisis on the African continent.” According to Oxfam, there are currently 1.2 million internally displaced people in Nigeria, but the numbers of those in need of help is far greater. Oxfam revealed that across Adamawa, Borno and Gombe an estimated 8.5 million people would need assistance in 2017, including food, water and shelter. The UN estimates this will cost around $1 billion.

Actor, producer and Oxfam ambassador, Djimon Hounsou, visited the Northeast last week to witness first-hand the effects of the crises and he painted a very gory picture of the dire situation of what’s going on.

“I met with the displaced families, mostly you see a lot of women without their husbands,” he told The Guardian Nigeria. “Their husbands are missing… [they] were killed during the conflict or captured afterwards. That’s pretty tragic. So many kids [are] out on the streets, lacking food, lacking clean drinking water.”

The two-time Academy award nominee who was born in Benin, spoke of his desire to “Shine a light on the issue to world communities.”

“I’m a son of the continent [so] it’s my inherent obligation to care for my own people,” he said. “I also came upon an amazing quote which said: ‘We should all be ashamed to die unless we have made some major contribution to human society.’ I’m looking to make a social impact here.”

Source guardian