Significant spikes in numbers of malnourished children in northern Nigeria require urgent action

“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,” says Dr Tirima.

Humanitarian assistance must be urgently scaled up. MSF calls upon the Nigerian authorities, international organisations, and donors to take immediate action to diagnose and treat malnourished children to prevent associated complications and deaths. They must also engage in sustained, long-term initiatives to mitigate the underlying causes of this urgent problem.

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

In April 2024, MSF’s medical team in Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria admitted 1,250 severely malnourished children with complications to the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre, double the figure for April 2023. Forced to urgently scale up capacity, by the end of May 2024 the centre accommodated 350 patients, far surpassing the 200 beds initially designated for the peak malnutrition season coming in July and August.