Doctors Without Borders Warns Of Worsening Malnutrition In Northern Nigeria

The Médecins Sans Frontières, a humanitarian non-governmental organisation, also known as Doctors Without Borders, has warned of worsening malnutrition in northern Nigeria.

MSF said the number of children with severe malnutrition it has admitted at its inpatient facilities in northern Nigeria is “extraordinary” and has exceeded last year’s number by over 100 per cent in many locations.

This was reported in a statement released by the organisation on Tuesday.

The organisation disclosed that “children are dying” and “if immediate action is not taken, more lives hang in the balance.”

Quoted Dr Simba Tirima, the MSF’s Country Representative in Nigeria, the statement reads, “We are resorting to treating patients on mattresses on the floor because our facilities are complete. Everyone needs to step in to save lives and allow the children of northern Nigeria to grow free from malnutrition and its disastrous long-term, if not fatal, consequences.

We’ve warned about the worsening malnutrition crisis for the last two years. 2022 and 2023 were already critical, but an even grimmer picture unfolds in 2024. We can’t keep repeating these catastrophic scenarios year after year. What will it take to make everyone take notice and act?

The organisation called on the Nigerian authorities, international organisations, and donors to take immediate action to diagnose and treat malnourished children to prevent associated complications and deaths.

Reeling the statistics, the statement noted that MSF’s medical team in Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria admitted 1,250 severely malnourished children with complications in April 2024, doubling the figure for April 2023.

It stated further that the MSF-operated facility in Bauchi state’s Kafin Madaki hospital recorded a significant 188 per cent increase in admissions of severely malnourished children during the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

In the northwestern part of the region, in Zamfara state, the inpatient centres in Shinkafi and Zurmi have received up to 30 per cent more monthly admissions in April compared to March. Talata Mafara’s facility saw about a 20 per cent increase in the same period.

“Similarly, MSF inpatient facilities in major cities like Kano and Sokoto also report alarming surges, by 75 and 100 per cent respectively. The therapeutic feeding centre in Kebbi state also documented a rise of more than 20 per cent in inpatient admissions from March to April 2024,” the statement added.

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