Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said that inpatient facilities in northern Nigeria have recorded an extraordinary increase in admissions of severely malnourished children with life-threatening complications, in recent weeks.
MSF in a statement said the cases are exceeding last year's figures by over 100 percent in some locations, describing it as an alarming indication of a premature peak of the lean season and the increase in acute malnutrition that accompanies it, typically anticipated in July.
MSF's country representative in Nigeria, Dr Simba Tirima, said "We are resorting to treating patients on mattresses on the floor because our facilities are full. Children are dying. If immediate action is not taken, more lives hang in the balance. Everyone needs to step in to save lives and allow the children of northern Nigeria to grow free from malnutrition and its disastrous long-term, if not fatal, consequences."
MSF's medical team in Maiduguri said they admitted 1250 severely malnourished children with complications to the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre, doubling the figure for April 2023.
This, they said forced them to urgently scale up capacity, and by the end of May, the centre accommodated 350 patients, far surpassing the 200 beds initially designated for the peak malnutrition season in July and August.
Also in the northeast, the MSF-operated facility in Bauchi state's Kafin Madaki hospital recorded a significant 188 percent increase in admissions of severely malnourished children during the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
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In the northwestern part of the region, in Zamfara state, the inpatient centres in Shinkafi and Zurmi have received up to 30 percent more monthly admissions in April compared to March. Talata Mafara's facility saw about 20 percent increase in the same period.
"Similarly, MSF inpatient facilities in major cities like Kano and Sokoto are also reporting alarming surges, by 75 and 100 percent respectively. The therapeutic feeding centre in Kebbi state also documented a rise of more than 20 per cent in inpatient admissions from March to April 2024," the statement explained.
The organisation, therefore, called for urgent scale up of humanitarian assistance in the region.
"MSF calls upon the Nigerian authorities, international organisations and donors to take immediate action to diagnose and treat malnourished children to prevent associated complications and deaths, but also to engage in sustained, long-term initiatives to mitigate the underlying causes of this urgent problem.
"We've been warning about the worsening malnutrition crisis for the last two years. 2022 and 2023 were already critical, but an even grimmer picture is unfolding in 2024. We can't keep repeating these catastrophic scenarios year after year. What will it take to make everyone take notice and act?", said Dr Tirima
