By Gbolahan Salman
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has called for increased investment in nutrition programmes in northern Nigeria after treating more than 87,000 children for acute malnutrition in Katsina State between January and August 2026.
The organisation said although the figure represented a slight decline from the more than 95,000 children treated during the same period in 2025, the number remained alarmingly high, underscoring the severity of the region’s nutrition crisis.
MSF also disclosed that nearly 15,500 children required hospitalisation for severe or complicated malnutrition in the first eight months of 2026, compared with about 16,500 during the corresponding period last year.
Dr Raphael Kananga, MSF’s medical coordinator in Nigeria, said the decline in admissions was encouraging but insufficient to suggest that the crisis had been overcome.
“This is lower than in 2025, when we treated more than 95,000 children over the same period, but the figure remains extremely high and is even above what we saw two years ago,” Kananga said.
In a statement on the situation, MSF identified kwashiorkor, a severe form of malnutrition characterised by swelling of the body and skin lesions, as a particular concern in the region.
The organisation said the condition was often difficult for parents and caregivers to recognise, potentially delaying treatment and increasing the risk of complications.
To address the challenge, MSF established a specialised unit within its inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Katsina to care for children suffering from the condition.
A mother whose child received treatment at the facility, Badiyya Shafi’u, said she initially did not realise that her child was suffering from malnutrition.
“I didn’t think it was malnutrition. This kind of condition is difficult to recognise,” she said.
Shafi’u, however, expressed relief over her child’s recovery, saying the child had regained some physical strength after receiving medical care.
“Before, he could not even sit up on his own. If someone helped him sit, he would immediately fall back down.
“But now I can see an improvement because he is able to sit up by himself. When we help him stand, he can remain standing, and he is even trying to walk properly again,” she said.
MSF attributed the persistent malnutrition crisis in northern Nigeria to poverty, rising living costs, insecurity, displacement, disease outbreaks and extreme weather conditions, including droughts and floods.
It noted, however, that improved security and better harvests in Katsina in 2025 had contributed to a slight improvement in the nutritional situation this year.
Jean-Clément Ishimwe, MSF’s partnership coordinator, said some people previously displaced by insecurity had returned to their communities, allowing them to resume farming and improve their access to food.
“Many people displaced from Jibia or Batsari local government areas because of insecurity had been living in areas such as Katsina, Mashi and Mani.
“Since last year, however, they have been able to return home and resume farming. As a result, they can now access food more easily, and we are seeing fewer of them in our treatment centres,” Ishimwe said.
The organisation also acknowledged the efforts of the Katsina State Government and other humanitarian partners to expand treatment services.
It said the state government had opened additional outpatient and inpatient nutrition centres for several months in 2026, while MSF provided training and technical support to healthcare workers at the facilities.
Ishimwe disclosed that the state government had committed N1bn to tackling malnutrition, double its previous allocation, particularly for the procurement of ready-to-use therapeutic food required for the treatment of affected children.
He added that the United Nations Children’s Fund had pledged to mobilise a similar amount through its Child Nutrition Fund.
“If these commitments are fulfilled, this will be an encouraging sign that deserves to be supported and expanded across Katsina State and throughout northern Nigeria,” Ishimwe said.
Despite the expansion of nutrition services, MSF warned that inadequate funding and limited access to ready-to-use therapeutic food remained major obstacles.
It said Katsina had increased its network of outpatient treatment centres from just a few in 2021 to about 400, but sustaining the facilities and ensuring adequate supplies continued to pose challenges.
The organisation added that reductions in aid funding by the United States and several European countries, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, had further complicated efforts to address the crisis.
Citing figures from UNICEF, MSF said fewer than half of children with severe acute malnutrition worldwide received treatment, despite the availability of interventions that could prevent deaths and reduce the risk of long-term developmental problems.
It also cited concerns raised by the Nutrition Society of Nigeria that nearly two million Nigerian children were affected by severe acute malnutrition, with only about two in every 10 receiving treatment.
Across its nutrition projects in seven northern states, MSF said it treated 57,999 children for malnutrition in inpatient facilities and another 225,778 through outpatient programmes between January and August 2026.
The organisation urged the Federal Government, state governments, international donors and humanitarian partners to sustain and increase funding for nutrition programmes, warning that gains recorded in Katsina could be reversed without continued investment.
It stressed that ensuring consistent access to treatment and therapeutic food was essential to reducing preventable child deaths and addressing the long-running malnutrition crisis in northern Nigeria.
