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UN: Helicopter Aid Reaches 45,000 in Boko Haram-hit Northeast Nigeria


People walk through the United Nations camp in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Dec. 1, 2016. Some 4.6 million people are going hungry across northeast Nigeria, of whom two million need food aid urgently, according to the U.N.
People walk through the United Nations camp in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Dec. 1, 2016. Some 4.6 million people are going hungry across northeast Nigeria, of whom two million need food aid urgently, according to the U.N.

Flying in aid workers by helicopter to remote, hard-to-reach areas previously cut off from help by Boko Haram violence across northeast Nigeria has provided more than 45,000 people with aid over the past week, the United Nations said Thursday.

Many of those receiving aid have received little or no assistance so far, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said.

A military push against the jihadist group Boko Haram has enabled troops to enter remote parts of northeast Nigeria in the last few months, but insecurity and the fear of violence has restricted access to some areas by road for many aid agencies.

Many children at risk

Some 4.6 million people are going hungry across the region, of whom two million need food aid urgently, the WFP said.

"These missions help avert famine and aim to reach tens of thousands of hungry people stranded in remote areas or in areas difficult to access due to insecurity," WFP's country director for Nigeria, Sory Ouane, said in a statement.

Around 400,000 children are at risk from famine in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe — 75,000 of whom could die from hunger within months, the United Nations says.

"Our teams will carry out emergency missions as long as needed," Ouane added.

Children stand at the door of their house at a camp for internally displaced people in Maiduguri, Nigeria Nov. 29, 2016.
Children stand at the door of their house at a camp for internally displaced people in Maiduguri, Nigeria Nov. 29, 2016.

More help on the way

The WFP plans to fly in teams of aid workers across the northeast a dozen times a month — backed up by food delivered by road where possible — to provide support to some 300,000 people.

In some parts of the region, more than half of children under the age of five are malnourished, according to the WFP.

But hunger and malnutrition rates have improved hugely in areas that have become accessible in recent months, Ouane said.

Militants displace thousands

Boko Haram militants have killed about 15,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria during a seven-year campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate.

The Islamist group still launches deadly attacks despite having been driven out of much of the territory it held in 2014.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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