Nigeria says half of govt food aid never reached victims of Boko Haram

At least half of Nigerian government food aid sent northeast for hungry people driven from their homes by Boko Haram has been "diverted" and never reached them, a government official said. Some 1.5 million people are on the brink of famine in the northeast, where the jihadist group has killed more than 20,000 people and forced 2.7 million to flee during its eight-year uprising to create an Islamic caliphate. A programme was launched on June 8 by Yemi Osinbajo, acting president while President Muhammadu Buhari is in Britain on medical leave, to distribute grain to 1.8 million people still displaced by the insurgency, many of whom live in camps. "Over 1,000 trucks of assorted grains are now on course, delivering the grains intact to beneficiaries since the commencement of the present programme as against the reported diversion of over 50 trucks in every 100 trucks sent to the northeast," said Osinbajo's spokesman Laolu Akande in an emailed statement late on Saturday.