Malnutrition: MSF urges urgent mobilization to prevent further deaths of children
By Samuel Luka,
Bauchi
As some states of Northern Nigeria currently grapple with alarming malnutrition crisis, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also known as Doctors Without Borders has called for an urgent mobilization to prevent further deaths of children.
Ahmed Aldikhari, country representative of MSF in Nigeria, made the call in a press statement on Friday.
He said, in Katsina state where its teams have been present since 2021, an ever-increasing number of malnourished children is witnessed in its therapeutic feeding centers.
The Country representative of MSF in Nigeria explained that the center also recorded an increasingly severe conditions and higher mortality rates.
He further pointed out that, in collaboration with the local authorities, emergency prevention distribution of nutritional supplements has started for 66,000 children in the local government area of Mashi.
According to Ahmed Aldikhari, “in the context of drastic cuts in international funding, the need for prevention and treatment of malnutrition is enormous in northern Nigeria, and urgent mobilization is required”.
He said by the end of June 2025, nearly 70,000 malnourished children had already received medical care from MSF teams in Katsina State, including nearly 10,000 who were hospitalized in serious condition.
The Country Representative stated that, between January and June 2025, the number of malnourished children with nutritional oedema, the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition, rose by 208 percent compared with the same period in 2024.
While also regretting that 652 children have already died in MSF facilities since the beginning of 2025 due to a lack of timely access to care, Aldikhari noted that a worrying sign of the growing severity of malnutrition, a major public health emergency, is that, adults, particularly women, including pregnant and breastfeeding ones are also affected.
He disclosed that a screening carried out in July in all five MSF malnutrition centers in Katsina State on 750 mothers of patients, revealed that more than half of adult caregivers were acutely malnourished, including 13 percent with severe acute malnutrition.
Ahmed Aldikhari said to cope with the massive influx of children expected by the end of the lean season in October, MSF has increased its support to local authorities in several states in Northern Nigeria where it is providing care to the population.
He said in Katsina state, MSF has opened a new ambulatory therapeutic feeding center (AFTC) in Mashi and an additional inpatient therapeutic feeding center (ITFC) in Turai, to provide a total of 900 beds in two MSF-supported hospitals.
According to him, the year 2024 marked a turning point in Northern Nigeria’s nutritional crisis, with an increase of 25 percent from the previous year.