MSF

In July, the humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealed that Nigeria’s northwestern region is facing an alarming malnutrition crisis, with Katsina State at the epicentre, and is currently witnessing a surge in admissions of malnourished children. It was not the first time the organisation had raised the alarm. It had also done so several times in the past year. 

Against this backdrop, government leaders, international organisations, and civil society convened in Abuja, the federal capital city, on Thursday to mobilise against the escalating crisis in the region.

Hosted by the Katsina State Government, the Northwest Governors Forum, and MSF, the event drew participation from the Office of the Vice President, UNICEF, WFP, the World Bank, the INGO Forum, ALIMA, IRC, CS-SUN, and the European Union.

MSF’s country representative, Ahmed Aldikhari, noted that 2025 has been flagged as the worst, recording the highest cases of malnutrition in the last five years.

“We are here to highlight the situation and solidify commitments, collaborations, and engagement from all partners and government officials.”

He echoed a silent sentiment: “We acknowledge that resources are invested in conferences like this, but the real solutions lie within the communities. So, we must go beyond the hall and get practical in finding real solutions.”

HumAngle had reported the broader impact of this crisis, noting that displacements, armed conflicts, limited access to healthcare, and climate change have compounded the nutritional emergency. In one of our reports, we documented how 30 per cent of children under five in Katsina’s Jibia and Mashi local government areas are suffering from acute malnutrition. 

Most recently, HumAngle produced a 21-minute-long conversation via The Crisis Room, a monthly podcast series that focuses on crisis signalling and explores existing responses and solutions to crises in Nigeria. The conversation with the state’s MSF coordinator focused on the state’s malnutrition crisis—where aid workers fight to save lives on the edge.

Despite these reports, malnutrition in Katsina and northwestern Nigeria remains dire with limited systemic change.

While reacting to MSF’s latest report on the scale of the issue in Katsina state, the governor said he saw it as an opportunity to find feasible solutions to the crisis in the state.

“Instead of criticising the latest MSF report on malnutrition, my administration saw it as a call to action for confronting the crisis head-on. To address this challenge, we set up a high-level committee to investigate the root causes of malnutrition across the state,” he said. 

“We are promoting local production of therapeutic foods such as Tom Brown to reduce dependency on imports, distributing thousands of food baskets to at-risk families, and training hundreds of women to produce nutritious meals at the community level.”

However, the commercialization of Tom Brown and other therapeutic food is a present threat that has been documented all over the country, and was highlighted in his speech. This suggests that beyond making the foods available, the distribution process needs to be strengthened.

The federal government’s concerted efforts are also needed for an enduring impact, an area many, especially displaced people, have found insufficient. Uju Vanstasia Anwukah, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health, who was present at the event as the Vice President’s representative, said the government was committed to fixing the issue. 

“This partnership with MSF and the convening of this high-level conference reaffirm the government’s understanding that real progress begins with the health and nourishment of every child,” she said.

Adding to the discussion, Nemat Hajeebhoy, Chief of Child Nutrition at UNICEF, outlined an affordable financing strategy.

“The global architecture of financing is changing, but there is still very much the recognition that there is a need to invest and support countries. UNICEF is here to partner with the government. They are our clients, so to speak, but children are our bosses.”

She introduced UNICEF’s Child buy-one-get-one-free-to-one match initiative: “It’s a buy one get one free. For every Naira the government invests—federal, state, or LGA—we will match it to help procure high-impact nutrition commodities.”

“But we need more. It’s not sufficient. This is the pavement for the future. It’s no longer just about aid—it’s about partnership.”

While commending the Katsina State government, Nemat emphasised the need for a 360 advocacy, involving bilateral engagement with governors, technical communities, media, and champions like actors.

“We also need communities to speak out and demand. There is hope. The Nutrition 774 Initiative, launched by the vice president in February, puts accountability and action at the LGA level. Nigeria is a big country, and unless we go ward by ward, we may not see change.”

Though the conference seems to have set the stage for concrete, coordinated action to protect the health and future of millions of vulnerable communities, citizens are eager to see improvement in the coming months and years. 

‘People are being shot like animals.’ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling for Gaza’s GHF aid sites to be shut down after its report found Israeli troops are deliberately killing Palestinians trying to access food, in what it describes as ‘orchestrated killings’.

Medical relief agency has treated more than 1,300 patients for gunshot wounds sustained near notorious GHF aid sites in Gaza.

Doctors Without Borders, better known by its French-language acronym MSF, has called for the immediate end to Israel’s militarised food distribution scheme in Gaza, which it described as “institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation”.

In a grim report released on Thursday, titled “This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing”, the medical nonprofit said that it operates clinics in Rafah, southern Gaza, near two GHF aid distribution sites under the control of the Israeli military and private US contractors.

Since those sites opened in May, they have become synonymous with “stampedes, suffocating crowd surges, violent looting and lethal ‘crowd control’ measures”, MSF said in its reports.

“The GHF distribution sites fall dangerously short of any recognised standard for safe and dignified humanitarian distributions,” the report said.

“Nowhere else in the world where MSF operates – including in the most volatile conflict zones – would this level of violence around an ‘aid distribution’ site be tolerated. This must stop now,” the organisation said.

MSF teams were “mentally prepared for responding to conflict – but not to civilians killed and maimed while seeking aid”, it said.

MSF’s primary care clinics have turned into mass casualty units since GHF took control of aid distribution in Gaza, it added.

Over a seven-week period in June and July, MSF received 1,380 injured people and 28 dead bodies at its two primary care clinics in Gaza’s al-Attar and al-Mawasi areas, which are close to two GHF distribution sites.

The patients included 174 suffering from gunshot wounds, among them women and children, the report said, but most patients were young men and teenage boys.

A significant number of patients from GHF sites in Khan Younis arrived with gunshot wounds to their lower limbs bearing a precision that “strongly suggests intentional targeting of people within the distribution sites, rather than accidental or indiscriminate fire”, MSF said.

The report noted that many patients had also sustained injuries from “crowd control” measures, including pepper spray and other kinds of physical assault.

Patients injured at GHF sites typically arrived covered in sand and dust “from time spent lying on the ground while taking cover from bullets”, the report adds.

“People are being shot like animals,” an MSF coordinator said in the report.

“They’re not armed. They’re not soldiers. They’re civilians carrying plastic bags, hoping to bring home some flour or pasta. And my question is: how high is the price they have to pay for one bag of food?”

Health facilities juggling rising cases of infant hunger, malaria, in an area that also shelters thousands of refugees.

Rising cases of extreme infant hunger and malaria are overwhelming humanitarian facilities in southwestern Ethiopia as aid cuts force other nutrition and disease prevention programmes to shutter, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF) has warned.

MSF said on Wednesday it had seen a 55-percent increase compared with last year in child admissions to its feeding centre in the Kule refugee camp in Ethiopia’s Gambella region, with many of the infants coming from camps nearby.

Funding cuts have meant the closure of nutrition services in four of the region’s seven refugee camps, MSF said, “leaving around 80,000 children under the age of five at risk of life-threatening malnutrition”.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation with about 130 million people, is grappling with armed clashes in two of its largest regions.

Southwestern Gambella borders South Sudan, itself facing a dramatic uptick in violence and funding cuts to international programmes that form the country’s healthcare backbone.

The region currently shelters just under 400,000 refugees across seven camps, many of them South Sudanese.

80,000 children under five are at risk of life-threatening malnutrition as services are suspended in four refugee camps in Gambella, Ethiopia, following significant aid cuts.

Without urgent support, this crisis will continue to escalate.https://t.co/hlDXRzqpmb

— MSF International (@MSF) August 6, 2025

Patient visits to the Kule camp have risen by almost 60 percent compared with 2024.

“MSF is overwhelmed by the increased patient load, and we fear this number will likely keep rising in the coming months,” said Armand Dirks, MSF’s project coordinator in Gambella.

Nyauahial Puoch travelled roughly eight kilometres (five miles) from another refugee camp to seek treatment for her malnourished 17-month-old daughter.

“Since last year, there has been a big decline. Some of the items we used to get are no longer provided at all,” the NGO quoted her as saying.

While they are given food once a month, Puoch said, “it always runs out before the month ends”.

Funding cuts have also had an impact on disease prevention, notably malaria programmes, with MSF predicting a steep increase in the May-to-October rainy season.

The NGO said in July it had seen an approximately 125-percent rise in the number of malaria patients – almost 24,000 – compared with the previous month, with half of these patients coming from neighbouring refugee camps.

“This poses a serious threat to already vulnerable refugees who face heightened exposure to malaria-infected mosquitoes due to overcrowded living conditions and limited sanitation,” said Birhanu Sahile, MSF’s deputy medical coordinator.