Nigeria: Screening reveals “catastrophic” malnutrition crisis
One in four children under the age of five is malnourished in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas of Nigeria’s Zamfara state, according to a mass screening conducted in June by Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Ministry of Health. MSF is urging immediate action.
Of the 97,149 children screened in 21 different urban and rural locations, 27 percent were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, with five percent having severe acute malnutrition.
These concerning figures far exceed the 'critical level' threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding malnutrition prevalence.
MSF urges health authorities and international organisations to immediately intensify their efforts to tackle the escalating malnutrition crisis in Zamfara state, as well as the whole of Northwest Nigeria.
This region is not yet included in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan.
“The response to this overwhelming disaster is grossly insufficient”
The humanitarian response is lacking
The mass screening we conducted in June in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas also revealed that about 22 percent of children screened are moderately malnourished.
Currently, the nutritional supplies essential to treat these children are unavailable, as UNICEF halted its supplies of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) at the start of the year.
This lack of aid in Northwest Nigeria risks the lives of moderately malnourished children who, without immediate care, will progress to severe acute malnutrition that threatens their survival and compromises their long-term health.
“The screening results from Shinkafi and Zurmi are nothing short of alarming, revealing a catastrophic malnutrition crisis across Northwest Nigeria,” declares Abdullahi Mohammad, an MSF representative in Nigeria.
“The response to this overwhelming disaster is grossly insufficient.
"With malnutrition rates soaring beyond critical levels and no immediate treatment available for moderate acute malnutrition apart from at MSF facilities, we’re effectively letting more children fall into life-threatening conditions.
“It is crucial we ensure every child receives the medical care they desperately need.”
Alarming increases across the board
MSF runs four inpatient and 17 outpatient facilities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi and Talata Mafara in Zamfara – a state badly affected by malnutrition.
Across all four inpatient facilities, MSF teams have treated over 7,000 children from January to July 2024. These figures for admissions are 34 percent higher than for the same period in 2023.
In Shinkafi and Zurmi, where MSF conducted the recent malnutrition screening, the increase in admissions is 50 percent more than the same period last year.
At the medical facility in Gummi, admissions in July 2024 were almost double compared to the same month last year.
The risk of disease
Alongside the significant increase in malnutrition admissions, MSF teams are seeing high numbers of children with vaccine preventable diseases such as measles.
In Zamfara, they have treated at least 5,700 measles cases so far this year. Infectious diseases like measles, malaria, and acute watery diarrhoea, make it harder for children to be properly nourished. In turn, malnutrition makes them far more susceptible to these illnesses, with a higher risk of death.
“When I first brought my son into the hospital, I didn’t know if he would survive,” says Hafsat Lawal, a mother whose child is being treated for malnutrition at an MSF facility in Zamfara.
“Back at home because of the insecurity we don’t have food. The prices of food have more than doubled. If we had money, we would have bought some grains, but we cannot.”
Communities are facing high levels of violence in Zamfara and have told MSF teams that they are scared to move around the state, taking huge risks to reach functioning healthcare facilities.
It is estimated by the health authorities that as of 2023, only about 200 out of 700 healthcare centres in Zamfara are accessible, and the rest are non-functional. One of the reasons is that healthcare workers struggle to reach them.
Our work saves lives
A coordinated response is needed
Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and facing high levels of insecurity, communities in the Northwest have long been excluded from coordinated humanitarian response.
It is essential that health authorities in this area, alongside international organisations and donors, urgently scale up their response.
Malnourished children need the immediate expansion of health facilities to ensure that more hospitals can offer the type of inpatient care desperately needed to save lives.
Moreover, UNICEF, as the primary supplier of RUTF, must ensure the consistent and sufficient delivery of these essential therapeutic foods to prevent more children from falling victim to this crisis.
MSF and malnutrition
Around 45 percent of all deaths in young children are linked to malnutrition; when children suffer from acute malnutrition, their immune systems are so impaired that the risk of death is greatly increased.
In 2022, we admitted 127,400 severely malnourished children into inpatient feeding programmes (an increase of 55% on 2021) across the world, and 324,591 to outpatient programmes (an increase of 100% on 2021).