Adedokun Waliyu 
The United States government has announced $176 million in additional humanitarian aid for West African countries including Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a press release published on the United States Agency for International Development(USAID) official website on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
The USAID revealed the financial response is in view of the deteriorating security situation in parts of Nigeria, Cameroun and other West African countries.
The US explained that funding is critical because the humanitarian responses in Nigeria and other West African countries are vastly underfunded while the needs are far outpacing the assistance available.
The statement partly adds,
“The United States, through USAID, is providing nearly $176 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions of West Africa in response to deteriorating security conditions and increasing humanitarian needs in communities cut off from assistance due to conflict.
“This additional funding from USAID – which includes funds from the recently passed bipartisan supplemental appropriation – will support communities in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Nigeria facing staggering humanitarian needs amid conflict, food insecurity, and displacement.
“These funds will be provided through UN and NGO partners, including the UN World Food Program, UNICEF, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“These funds will allow our partners to reach additional people with food assistance, nutrition, safe drinking water, emergency health care, and protection for the most vulnerable, along with other vital aid.”
The United States seized the moment to urge other donors to join in scaling up assistance to West Africa so as to help save lives and alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable in the region.
The United States government announced about $533 million in humanitarian assistance for Nigeria and other countries in the Lake Chad region, in 2018.
The United States prides itself as a leading donor to the humanitarian response in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions.
The assistance is part of the US move to strengthen and sustain bilateral relations with Nigeria.
This comes after the sixth U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission which was held in Abuja on April 29-30, 2024.
The U.S. delegation welcomed Tuggar’s 4D policy of Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora and acknowledged Nigerian ideas to incorporate U.S. contributions to meeting these goals.
The U.S. delegation had noted the United States International Development Finance Corporation has a portfolio of over $700 million in direct loans, loan guarantees and other financing support in Nigeria.
According to a US report, the two-way trade in goods between the United States and Nigeria in 2022, totalled over $8.1 billion making Nigeria the second largest U.S. export destination in Sub-Saharan Africa.
