By Aliyu Dangida
Extreme violence, deteriorating economic conditions, and climate change has compelled no fewer than 600, 000 people displaced from their homes in northwest Nigeria.
In a statement signed and made available to Hotpen by the Communications Officer, Médecins Nigeria Sans Frontières|MSF Nigeria|Doctors Without Borders, Mohamed Ali Adan, said despite encouraging signs of mobilisation from humanitarian actors and donors in 2023, MSF warns that the funding and aid currently available are vastly insufficient for people’s growing humanitarian needs.
According to the statement, said both northeast and northwest regions remain affected by high levels of malnutrition and preventable diseases, the non-inclusion of the latter in all previous Humanitarian Response Plans (HRP) is alarming.
“We have repeatedly expressed our concerns to the UN and donors about the alarming and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the northwest,” says MSF head of mission Ahmed Bilal.
“The lack of recognition of the crisis is having a severe impact on the health and humanitarian needs of the population, and delaying the response which is desperately needed.”
People living in the states of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Kebbi have been hit by the persistent violence, mainly armed banditry and kidnappings in northwest Nigeria.
Last year, more than 2,000 people were killed in more than 1,000 violent incidents in the region, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
As well as being displaced from their homes, people have lost their livelihoods, and are often no longer able to reach their farms for security reasons, they struggle to find food, and accessing healthcare and other basic services has become increasingly difficult and dangerous.
The crisis has seen rates of malnutrition and other diseases spiral. It is estimated that around 2.6 million children have Severe Acute Malnutrition in the country, from which 532,163 are in Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara according to national nutritional surveys conducted by UNICEF and authorities.
Last year, MSF medical teams working in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Kano states treated 171,465 malnourished children as outpatients and admitted 32,104 children for life-threatening severe acute malnutrition – a 14 per cent rise on the previous year. In Katsina, MSF found high levels of acute malnutrition in 2023 with 17,4% of the surveyed children suffering from acute malnutrition in Jibia local government area at the beginning of the lean season, so not even when access to food is the most difficult.
The high rate of admissions to inpatient facilities has been accompanied by alarming mortality rates, as was the case in one of our supported facilities in Zamfara state where it reached 23,1%.
Sadly, many children are dying within 48 hours after arriving in critical conditions, too late to be saved due to the barriers in reaching healthcare. Overall, 854 children admitted to MSF facilities in the northwest died 24 to 48-hour after admission in 2023.
Faced with the prospect of an alarming 2024, MSF calls upon the humanitarian community and Nigerian government to urgently mobilise across northwest Nigeria, where access is possible, to respond to this neglected humanitarian emergency.
Hotpen reports that, MSF has been working in Nigeria since 1996. In northwest Nigeria, MSF teams currently work in 28 outpatient and 7 inpatient therapeutic feeding centres across Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kano and Kebbi states.
In northeast Nigeria, MSF teams work in Maiduguri hospital in Borno state and Kafin Madaki hospital in Bauchi state.
In 2023, MSF teams across Nigeria treated 202,083 malnourished children in outpatient feeding programmes and provided inpatient care to 52,124 children with severe acute malnutrition.
