The Kaduna State Government and Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria project have distributed food items and vitamin fortified farm seedlings to 100 households who were victims of the Tudun Biri incidental Army drone attack.

Tudun Biri, a community under Igabi LGA of Kaduna State, suffered an army drone attack on December 3 which left many dead and several injured.

Succour to the Tudun Biri community was an initiative of the state government under its Ministry of Health, supported by the World Bank and Society for Family Health, while being implemented by the ANRiN project.

ANRiN is a project funded by the World Bank that aims to increase quality and cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls, and children under five.

The programme is focussing on 12 states of Nigeria that have high levels of malnutrition, Kaduna inclusive.

The food items distributed were bags of rice, beans, millet, salt and palm oil, while the vitamin fortified seedlings were those of potatoes, tomatoes and okra.

Others were herbicides, pesticides and goats for rearing, among others.

Speaking to journalists at the sideline of the distribution, , the Coordinator of ANRiN project in Kaduna, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, said the gesture was an emergency response to bring succour to the Tudun Biri community over the incident.

Ms Muhammad-Idris, who doubles as the National President-elect of the Medical Women Association in Nigeria, said the support was to ensure the beneficiaries picked up their livelihood after the drone attack incident.

She added that the inhabitants of Tudun Biri who were generally farmers, therefore informed the ANRiN project to come up with the support that would provide their immediate needs.

The coordinator said that the event also featured training for the women who benefited from the gesture.

She added that it would enable them practise home gardening techniques and also avail the men the needed opportunity to re-engineer their farming skills.

The coordinator explained that after the visit to Tudun Biri by Vice- President Kashim Shettima, the World Bank was approached to see what it could do through the ANRiN project.

Ms Mohammad-Idris said the World Bank urged ANRiN to visit the community to make assessments and establish the reality on the ground.

She urged the beneficiary households to make judicious use of the items, urging other individuals, corporate bodies and philanthropists to emulate the gesture.

She also urged the state government to keep up to the responsibility of providing social amenities especially in the rural communities.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Ward Head of Tudun Biri, Malam Sulaiman Shuaibu, thanked the state government for the support.

Earlier, the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Hajiya Hadiza Balarabe, restated the government’s commitment towards ensuring that the promises made to Tudun Biri community were fulfilled.

Ms Balarabe, represented by Hajiya Fatima Abubakar, the acting Director, Administration and Finance of the state Emergency Management Agency, said the distribution of the food items and farming needs was a step towards ameliorating the sufferings of the drone attack victims.

She urged them to make judicious use of the items for the benefit of their dependents and restart farming activities in the community.

(NAN)