Nicosia: More than 600 malnourished children have died in northern Nigeria in six months after failing to receive proper care as foreign aid dries up, a medical charity has said.
According to Nam News Network, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that northern Nigeria, already grappling with an insurgency, is now facing a severe malnutrition crisis. The number of children suffering from the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition increased by 208 percent between January and June compared to the same period last year. The organization emphasized that the true scale of the crisis exceeds all predictions.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also affected, as an MSF survey of 750 mothers revealed that more than half of them were acutely malnourished, with 13 percent experiencing severe acute malnutrition. The situation is further exacerbated by a nationwide food insecurity crisis, with nearly 31 million people facing acute hunger across Nigeria, as highlighted by David Stevenson, chief of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in Nigeria.