http://www.irinnews.org/report/101059/how-boko-haram-brought-hunger-to-northern-cameroon
For my FNH 455 “Nutrition In the News” assignment, I had to find a nutrition or food-related crises that took place over the past six months. I was on IRINnews and stumbled across an article that explored how food insecurity has been rising in Cameroon over the past couple months due to attacks from militant group Boko Haram. Although I had heard about Boko Haram in the news, I had never heard of its possible impacts on food security. Although primarily based in Nigeria, Boko Haram has made repeated military attacks on over a dozen villages in Northern Cameroon. As a result, the transport of goods has been halted, farmers have been displaced from their farms, and farmers have not been able to partake in timely planting. This has had serious consequences, one of which includes a noticeable increase in the malnutrition rate among children under five years of age in the villages that are most affected; more specifically, the rate has increased to twenty percent, which exceeds the emergency cutoff of fifteen percent as set by the WHO. Furthermore, for the families that have been displaced, this means they are now forced to seek shelter in other parts of the country. Finally, for the farmers that have not been able to engage in timely planning, this means that their crop yields could decrease and their food security will could be threatened in the upcoming future.
