Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a global organisation providing humanitarian medical care, has declared that one in four children in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas of Zamfara, North West Nigeria, suffers from malnutrition. Also known as Doctors Without Borders, MSF  collaborated with the Ministry of Health in Zamfara to conduct a mass screening of over 97, 000 children in June across 21 locations.

In a statement issued on Monday, Sept. 9, MSF declared that 27 per cent of the children screened were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition while five per cent suffered severe acute malnutrition, noting that about 22 per cent of the children screened were moderately malnourished.

The humanitarian organisation running inpatient and outpatient facilities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi, and other areas in Zamfara added that its teams have treated over 7,000 children from January to July, making the admission ratio 34 per cent higher this year than in 2023 for the same period. In Shinkafi and Zurmi, where the recent malnutrition screening was conducted, the increase in admissions was recorded to be 50 per cent more than the same period last year. 

Abdullahi Mohammad, a representative of the MSF in Nigeria, described the screening results from Shinkafi and Zurmi as “alarming”. 

“The response to this overwhelming disaster is grossly insufficient. With malnutrition rates soaring beyond critical levels and no immediate treatment available for moderate acute malnutrition apart from at MSF facilities, we’re effectively letting more children fall into life-threatening conditions. We must ensure every child receives the medical care they desperately need,” Abdullahi asserted.

MSF raised concerns about the unavailability of nutritional supplies,  as UNICEF halted its supply at the beginning of the year. Aside from the overwhelming increase in malnutrition cases in Zamfara, MSF says it has recorded high numbers of children with measles which could be prevented with vaccines. Other infectious diseases that were recorded are malaria, and acute watery diarrhoea which is negatively impacting the nutritional status of children in the area.

Locals have attributed the soaring malnutrition cases to the cost of living crisis which has scaled up prices of goods and services. Insecurity has also been highlighted as a primary factor, as people declared their fears of moving around and barely accessing functional health facilities. In 2023, about 500 primary healthcare centres were not accessible in Zamfara due to insecurity.

However, MSF has called on international organisations and donors to urgently scale up their response for immediate expansion of health facilities so that malnourished children can be treated. It also noted the need for more hospitals to offer the type of inpatient care desperately needed to save lives. 

“UNICEF, as the primary supplier of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), must ensure the consistent and sufficient delivery of these essential therapeutic foods to prevent more children from falling victim to this crisis,” the statement read.