Hunger crisis looms in Nigeria’s ‘food basket’ amid conflict

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

AGATU, Nigeria (AP) — Violence in northwestern Nigeria between farmers and herders over access to water and land has put food production at risk in Africa’s most populous nation. Benue state once had fields of rice and yams so bountiful that it became known as the “food basket of Nigeria.” But officials now estimate that more than 1 million farmers in the state have been displaced by intercommunal violence creating a critical drop in food production. Benue state Gov. Samuel Ortom warns that a food crisis looms. The U.N. World Food Program says that across northern Nigeria, at least 13 million are now facing hunger amid a lean season.