UN makes first food aid delivery to Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United Nations has made the first food aid delivery to thousands of people displaced by Boko Haram Islamists in the Nigerian town of Banki, where hundreds have starved to death since March, the UN said on Friday, July 22, according to AFP.

Officials from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) delivered 30 tonnes of "various lifesaving food items" transported from neighboring Cameroon, the OCHA said in a statement.

The convoy reached Banki on Thursday and distributed food to the more than 25,000 people in the town, it said.

"An additional 700 kilograms of supplementary food for malnourished children was airlifted from the state capital Maiduguri to Banki on the same day".

It was the first aid delivery to the thousands of internally displaced in the northeast region in the last four months following deadly Boko Haram raids, AFP says.

They have been without food and basic supplies and relied on paltry food handouts from soldiers who have been sharing their rations.