One in four children under the age of five is malnourished in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas of Zamfara state in Nigeria, according to a massive study conducted in June by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Ministry of Health.
Of the 97,149 children screened in 21 different urban and rural locations, 27 percent were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition and 5 percent from severe acute malnutrition.
These worrying figures far exceed the “critical level” threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the prevalence of malnutrition. MSF urges health authorities, international organizations and donors to immediately step up their efforts to address the growing malnutrition crisis in Zamfara state and across northwestern Nigeria, a region not yet included in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan.
WHO logo
The mass screening conducted in June in Shinkafi and Zurmi areas further revealed that approximately 22% of the children screened are suffering from moderate malnutrition. Currently, essential nutritional supplies to treat these children, also known as Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF), are not available, as UNICEF suspended its supplies earlier in the year. This current lack of humanitarian response to treat those suffering from moderate malnutrition in northwest Nigeria puts the lives of these children at risk, who, without immediate attention, will progress to severe acute malnutrition that threatens their survival and compromises their long-term health.
“The results of the Shinkafi and Zurmi screenings are alarming and reveal a catastrophic malnutrition crisis in north-west Nigeria,” said Abdullahi Mohammad, MSF representative in Nigeria. “The response to this overwhelming catastrophe is woefully inadequate. With malnutrition rates exceeding critical levels and no immediate treatment available for moderate acute malnutrition, except in MSF facilities, we are allowing more children to fall into life-threatening conditions. It is vital that we ensure that all children receive the medical care they desperately need.”
MSF currently runs four inpatient care centres and 17 outpatient centres in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi and Talata Mafara in Zamfara, a state severely affected by malnutrition. In the four inpatient care centres, MSF teams have treated more than 7,000 children between January and July 2024. These admission figures are 34% higher than in the same period in 2023. In Shinkafi and Zurmi, where MSF conducted the recent malnutrition screening, the increase in admissions is 50% higher than in the same period last year. At the Gummi medical centre, admissions in July 2024 were almost double compared to the same month last year.
In addition to the significant increase in admissions for malnutrition, MSF teams are treating a large number of children with vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles. In Zamfara, they have treated at least 5,700 cases of measles so far this year. Infectious diseases such as measles, malaria and acute watery diarrhoea severely compromise the nutritional status of children. In turn, malnutrition makes them much more susceptible to these diseases, with a higher risk of death.
Article page with promotion of financial support
“When I took my son to the hospital, I didn’t know if he would survive,” explains Hafsat Lawal, a mother whose son is being treated for malnutrition at an MSF centre in Zamfara. “At home, because of the insecurity, we have no food. Food prices have more than doubled. If we had money, we would have bought some cereals, but we can’t.”
Communities are facing high levels of violence in Zamfara and have told MSF teams that they are afraid to move around the state and take huge risks to reach functioning health facilities. Health authorities estimate that by 2023, only about 200 of Zamfara’s 700 health facilities will be accessible and the rest will not be functioning. One reason is that health workers have difficulty reaching them.
Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and high levels of insecurity they face, communities in the northwest have long been excluded from the coordinated humanitarian response. It is essential that health authorities in this area, together with international organisations and donors, urgently step up their response.
Health facilities to treat malnourished children must be immediately expanded and more hospitals must be ensured to provide the kind of in-patient care that is desperately needed to save lives. In addition, UNICEF, as the main supplier of basic therapeutic foods, must ensure the continued and sufficient distribution of these essential therapeutic foods to prevent more children from falling victim to this crisis.