Northern states record 185,502 rise in child malnutrition cases

In 2025, at least 185,502 additional children across seven northern Nigerian states were diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition compared to the previous two years, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The affected states include Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Bauchi, Borno, and Sokoto. The organization attributes this growing nutrition crisis to conflict, displacement, and declining humanitarian funding since the US administration under President Donald Trump halted global health initiatives.

MSF treated 425,634 children for acute malnutrition in 2025, marking a 41.8% increase compared to 2024, when they treated just over 300,165 children. The 2024 figure constituted a 25% rise over 2023, which saw around 240,132 malnourished children treated. The surge is attributed to factors like worsening insecurity and displacement, heightened food insecurity, disease outbreaks, reduced humanitarian funding, and broader economic challenges, all of which have exacerbated child vulnerability and malnutrition.

MSF operates 12 Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centres and over 30 Ambulatory Therapeutic Feeding Centres in these seven states, treating over 169,000 children in the first half of 2025 alone. The organization has also integrated mental health and psychosocial support into its malnutrition programs, recognizing that malnutrition impacts children and their caregivers emotionally and behaviorally as well.

Caregivers accompany children for extended hospital stays, leading to psychological strain, and MSF provides psychological first aid, individual counseling, group sessions, and sensorimotor stimulation to expedite recovery and caregiver well-being.