Over 854 children died in MSF facilities in Nigeria’s North-west in 2023

Medecins Sans Frontieres, also called Doctors Without Borders (MSF), on Monday, warned of “catastrophic levels of malnutrition” and an escalating humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s Northwest geopolitical zone.

The charity organisation says in the region over 854 children died in its facilities across Zamfara, Sokoto, and Katsina due to armed conflict resulting in malnutrition and limiting access to healthcare facilities.

Non-state actors in the region, locally called bandits, routinely ransack communities, loot and burn silos and carry out mass kidnappings for ransom, driving what the international aid group called a “neglected humanitarian emergency.”

MSF said its teams in five of the seven northwestern states treated 171,465 malnourished children last year and admitted 32,104 to hospital for life-threatening malnutrition, a 14 per cent rise on the previous year – in 2022.

“We have repeatedly expressed our concerns to the UN and donors about the alarming and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the northwest,” says MSF head of mission, Ahmed Bilal.

“The lack of recognition of the crisis is having a severe impact on the health and humanitarian needs of the population, and delaying the response which is desperately needed.

“Last year, MSF medical teams working in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Kano states treated 171,465 malnourished children as outpatients and admitted 32,104 children for life-threatening severe acute malnutrition – a 14 per cent rise on the previous year.

“In Katsina, MSF found high levels of acute malnutrition in 2023 with 17,4 per cent of the surveyed children suffering from acute malnutrition in Jibia Local Government Area at the beginning of the lean season, so not even when access to food is the most difficult.

“The high rate of admissions to inpatient facilities has been accompanied by alarming mortality rates, as was the case in one of our supported facilities in Zamfara state where it reached 23,1%. Sadly, many children are dying within 48 hours after arriving in critical conditions, too late to be saved due to the barriers in reaching healthcare. Overall, 854 children admitted to MSF facilities in the northwest died 24 to 48 hours after admission in 2023,” the MSF said in the statement.

“The crisis has seen rates of malnutrition and other diseases spiral. It is estimated that around 2.6 million children have Severe Acute Malnutrition in the country, from which 532,163 are in Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara according to national nutritional surveys conducted by UNICEF and authorities,” it added.

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The MSF said apart from the children fatalities in the region, over 2000 people were killed in the North-west mainly due to banditry.

“People living in the states of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Kebbi have been hit by the persistent violence, mainly armed banditry and kidnappings in northwest Nigeria. Last year, more than 2,000 people were killed in more than 1,000 violent incidents in the region, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event
Data Project.

“As well as being displaced from their homes, people have lost their livelihoods, and are often no longer able to reach their farms for security reasons, they struggle to find food, and accessing healthcare and other basic services has become increasingly difficult and dangerous,” the MSF said.