ICC Note: Hunger and malnutrition are running rampant in northeastern Nigeria as 500,000 people are in immediate need of food and medical care. This crisis is most heavily affecting the children of Borno state, an area terrorized by Boko Haram where many are now residing in IDP camps out of fear of returning home. One in every five of the roughly 244,000 starving children in Borno will die of malnutrition, unless they receive aid soon. The current death rate has reached about 134 children per day. There are humanitarian groups attempting to bring aid to these starving populations, but they are unable to reach some areas because of security reasons. The cause of this widespread and deadly malnutrition is Boko Haram; the group has terrorized northeastern Nigeria for seven years, killing, abducting, and destroying homes and crops, leading to the current food crisis. Many of the thousands affected by this crisis are Christians, since Boko Haram has targeted followers of Christ, in particular.

07/27/2016, Borno, Nigeria (CNN) – A frail woman hesitates for a moment before handing over her sick child to a nurse.

“This child cannot stand,” says another medic as the severely malnourished boy is carried to the intensive care unit at the Gwange therapeutic feeding center on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno state.

That scene, captured on video by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), plays out countless times in the northeastern state, where hunger is rampant, according to new numbers. The group says 500,000 people are in urgent need of food, shelter and medical care.

Nearly 244,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno state and an estimated 49,000 of them, about 1 in 5, will die if they don’t receive urgent treatment, UNICEF said in a new report.

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