By Rakiya A.Muhammad
The International medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has raised the alarm over what it described as unprecedented numbers of malnourished children in need of lifesaving treatment in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria.
“From early January to 20 April 2023, 1,283 malnourished children were admitted for intensive hospital care at MSF feeding centre – about 120% per cent more than from the same period last year,” it disclosed.
“The number of weekly admissions is two to three times higher than at the same period over the past five years – and it’s still rising.”
MSF warned of an impending catastrophe if immediate action is not taken.
According to it, the number of admissions since the start of 2023 is the highest ever recorded by MSF teams in Borno State for the period preceding the annual ‘hunger gap’, when food stocks from the previous harvest traditionally run out and malnutrition levels peak.
“We have not seen anything like this since we started running malnutrition activities here in 2017,” said MSF medical coordinator Htet Aung Kyi.
He recalled that they raised the alarm in June last year when admissions skyrocketed at the start of the hunger gap.
“But this year, we are already seeing alarming numbers while we are still weeks away from the pre-harvest shortage period. The clock is ticking for action if we want to avoid a catastrophe,” he stated.
Kyi stressed that the massive increase in malnourished children called for malnutrition prevention and treatment activities to be scaled up immediately to avoid a catastrophic situation when the hunger gap arrives.
MSF noted, “Malnutrition is not new in Maiduguri, where years of conflict and insecurity have caused a critical humanitarian situation.”
“Many people have been displaced from their homes and now live in precarious conditions in informal sites, with host communities, or transit through detention camps,” it added.
“The number of patients treated by MSF for severe malnutrition exploded in 2022, with over 8,000 children hospitalised for intensive nutrition care.”
It pointed out:” One in seven was coming from the Hajj detention camp for former members of armed opposition groups, their families and those who lived under their control.”
“Many arrived in this camp in an already precarious state of health, which further worsened due to the harsh living conditions in this transit camp.”
MSF noted that late 2021 saw the closure of official camps for displaced people and cuts to humanitarian and food aid.
“For most people, living conditions are extremely harsh, while some face restrictions on their movements, preventing them from earning a living or growing crops. People’s vulnerability increased,” it explained.
“More recently, people’s vulnerability further increased due to the redesign of the Nigerian currency in late 2022, which led to a shortage of cash, and the recent destruction of big markets in Maiduguri.”
However, the international medical organisation said that MSF teams were providing inpatient and outpatient treatment for malnourished children and targeted feeding for children with moderate malnutrition to prevent their condition from deteriorating.
It said MSF mobile teams also run clinics providing basic healthcare to people living in Hajj camp and Muna and Maisandari informal sites.
But Gabriele Santi, MSF project coordinator in Maidugu, observed that more than food aid was needed.
He emphasised the need for authorities and aid organisations to immediately ramp up malnutrition-related activities and increase bed capacity in intensive therapeutic feeding centres.
“They also need to improve living conditions in transit camps and expand people’s access to healthcare,” he stated.
“This must be backed by a swift scale-up of donor funding and strong coordination of these funds to make sure that food reaches those most in need. At this stage, only 16% of the funds requested by the nutrition cluster have been secured. This is alarming as well.”
