MSF says its teams in five of the seven northwestern states treated 171,465 malnourished children last year and admitted 32,104 to hospital for life-threatening malnutrition, a 14 per cent rise on the previous year - in 2022.
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The charity organisation says in the region over 854 children died in its facilities across Zamfara, Sokoto, and Katsina due to armed conflict resulting in malnutrition and limiting access to healthcare facilities. “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.
“In Katsina, MSF found high levels of acute malnutrition in 2023 with 17,4 per cent 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.