A mother takes care for her child at the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (ITFC) in General Hospital Zurmi, Zamfara state, Northwest Nigeria. Nigeria, May 2024. © Abba Adamu Musa/MSF
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 Doctors Without Borders facilities, we’re effectively letting more children fall into life-threatening conditions. It is crucial we ensure every child receives the medical care they desperately need.Abdullahi Mohammad, Rep. in Nigeria
Doctors Without Borders currently runs four inpatient and 17 outpatient facilities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi and Talata Mafara in Zamfara – a state badly affected by malnutrition. Across all four inpatient facilities, Doctors Without Borders teams have treated over 7,000 children from January to July 2024. These figures for admissions are 34 per cent higher than for the same period in 2023. In Shinkafi and Zurmi, where Doctors Without Borders conducted the recent malnutrition screening, the increase in admissions is 50 per cent more than the same period last year. At the medical facility in Gummi, admissions in July 2024 were almost double compared to the same month last year.
Alongside the significant increase in malnutrition admissions, Doctors Without Borders teams are seeing high numbers of children with vaccine preventable diseases such as measles. In Zamfara, they have treated at least 5,700 measles cases so far this year. Infectious diseases like measles, malaria, and acute watery diarrhoea, severely compromise the nutritional status of children. In turn, malnutrition makes them far more susceptible to these illnesses, with a higher risk of death.
Doctors Without Borders' doctor checks a child patient the General Hospital Shinkafi, Zamfara state, Northwest Nigeria. Nigeria, June 2024. © Abba Adamu Musa/MSF
“When I first brought my son into the hospital, I didn’t know if he would survive,” says Hafsat Lawal, a mother whose child is being treated for malnutrition at a Doctors Without Borders facility in Zamfara. “Back at home because of the insecurity we don’t have food. The prices of food have more than doubled. If we had money, we would have bought some grains, but we cannot.”
Communities are facing high levels of violence in Zamfara and have told Doctors Without Borders teams that they are scared to move around the state, taking huge risks to reach functioning healthcare facilities. It is estimated by the health authorities that as of 2023, only about 200 out of 700 healthcare centres in Zamfara are accessible, and the rest are non-functional. One of the reasons being that healthcare workers struggle to reach them.
Doctors Without Borders' nurse speaks to the caregivers at the triage of the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Zurmi general hospital, Zamfara state. Nigeria, May 2024. © Abba Adamu Musa/MSF
Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and facing high levels of insecurity, communities in the Northwest have long been excluded from coordinated humanitarian response. It is essential that health authorities in this area, alongside international organisations and donors, urgently scale up their response. Immediate expansion of health facilities is needed to treat malnourished children to ensure that more hospitals can offer the type of inpatient care desperately needed to save lives. Moreover, UNICEF, as the primary supplier of RUTF, must ensure the consistent and sufficient delivery of these essential therapeutic foods to prevent more children from falling victim to this crisis.
