Nigerian IDP canps on the brink of "a famine unlike any we have ever seen anywhere". - United Nations

Nearly a quarter of a million children in Nigeria's north east are severely malnourished, according to the UN's Assistant Secretary-General Toby Lanzer.


The northeast has been ravaged by Boko Haram militants for years now and most parts of the area are still unaccessible to staff of foreign aid agencies.

The other day, a vehicle belonging to UNICEF was damaged and some staff were harassed. Even though the UN had said the aids would cease, they had to continue sharing the aids due to the dire nature of the internally displaced persons.

Millions more are thought to be starving in refugee camps that are too dangerous for aid agencies to reach.

A malnourished child at the Muna settlement, which houses nearly 16,000 refugees on the outskirts of Maiduguri

Nigeria is already economically struggling - it is in a recession for the first time in more than a decade, inflation is at an 11-year high and oil, which makes up 70% of the government's revenue, is still suffering from a slump.

Boko Haram disrupted trade and farming in the region and are also hostile to western medicine.

Mr Lanzer said that, if Nigeria doesn't get help fast, "we will see, I think, a famine unlike any we have ever seen anywhere".

Speaking at a meeting in Brussels, Mr Lanzer said of the millions who haven't yet been reached: "We can't assess their situation - we can estimate that it's awful."

Refugees protesting against what they see as poor distribution of food at the Bakkasi camp in Maiduguri.

Jean Stowell is an American midwife in charge of a 110-bed feeding centre in Maiduguri, which is the largest city in the region and owned by Doctors Without Borders.

Ms Stowell told the Associated Press: "These are kids that basically have been hungry all their lives and some are so far gone that they die here in the first 24 hours."

There are around a million people in Maiduguri's camps - most of them fleeing the reach of the terrorist group - and many of them are also struggling with hunger.

And yet, outside the camps, the markets are filled with fruit and vegetables - all of it far too expensive for the average refugee.

The Nigerian government is investigating claims that officials have been stealing food aid; I have personally seen a material stamped with an NGO's stamp being sold in traffic instead of being at the camps they were made for in the first place.


Additional information from CNN