Malnutrition: After Death Of 854 Children, MSF Warns Of Impending Humanitarian Crisis

Over 854 children admitted to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) facilities in the Northwest had died of severe acute malnutrition within 24 to 48-hour after admission in 2023 due to the barriers in reaching healthcare.

A statement signed by the Communications Officer – MSF Nigeria, Mohamed Ali Adan and made available to journalists, lamented over the lack of adequate humanitarian support to victims of violence and deteriorating economic conditions displaced from their homes in northwest states.

The International medical humanitarian organisation, also lamented that last year, MSF medical teams working in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Kano states treated 171,465 malnourished children as outpatients and admitted 32,104 children for life-threatening severe acute malnutrition, a 14 per cent rise on the previous year.

“In Katsina, MSF found high levels of acute malnutrition in 2023 with 17 percent of the surveyed children suffering from acute malnutrition in Jibia local government area at the beginning of the lean season, so not even when access to food is the most difficult.

“The high rate of admissions to inpatient facilities has been accompanied by alarming mortality rates, as was the case in one of our supported facilities in Zamfara state where it reached 23 percent.

“Sadly, many children are dying within 48 hours after arriving in critical conditions, too late to be saved due to the barriers in reaching healthcare. Overall, 854 children admitted to MSF facilities in the northwest died 24 to 48-hour after admission in 2023,” it further revealed in the statement.

The MSF said the crisis has seen rates of malnutrition and other diseases spiral. It is estimated that around 2.6 million children have Severe Acute Malnutrition in the country, from which 532,163 are in Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara according to national nutritional surveys conducted by UNICEF and authorities.

The statement noted that the level of humanitarian support available to respond to people’s critical needs in the northern Nigeria is in dramatic decline.

The MSF said over recent years, more than 600,000 people have been displaced from their homes in northwest Nigeria as a result of extreme violence, deteriorating economic conditions, and climate change.

It maintains that despite encouraging signs of mobilisation from humanitarian actors and donors in 2023, the funding and aid currently available are vastly insufficient for people’s growing humanitarian needs.

“While both northeast and northwest regions remain affected by high levels of malnutrition and preventable diseases, the non-inclusion of the latter in all previous Humanitarian Response Plans (HRP) is alarming.

“We have repeatedly expressed our concerns to the UN and donors about the alarming and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the northwest,” says MSF head of mission Ahmed Bilal.

“The lack of recognition of the crisis is having a severe impact on the health and humanitarian needs of the population, and delaying the response which is desperately needed.

“People living in the states of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Kebbi have been hit by the persistent violence, mainly armed banditry and kidnappings in northwest Nigeria,” the statement further revealed.

It recounted that last year, more than 2,000 people were killed in more than 1,000 violent incidents in the region, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

“As well as being displaced from their homes, people have lost their livelihoods, and are often no longer able to reach their farms for security reasons, they struggle to find food, and accessing healthcare and other basic services has become increasingly difficult and dangerous,” it said.

MSF further stated that in order to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable populations, priority should be given to preventing and treating malnutrition, and to vaccinating people against preventable diseases, including improving routine and catch-up immunisations and carrying out reactive vaccination campaigns in response to ongoing disease outbreaks.

This, it said, is paramount for reducing morbidity and mortality amongst vulnerable populations, particularly children under five years.

MSF also called the humanitarian community and Nigerian government to urgently mobilise across northwest Nigeria, where access is possible, to respond to this neglected humanitarian emergency.