From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau
The Medicines San Frontiers has revealed that, a humanitarian crisis persists in the Northwest, with catastrophic levels of malnutrition and recurrent outbreaks of preventable diseases.
In a statement by the Communication Officer of the MSF Nigeria, Mohammed Ali Asan in Gusau Zamfara State capital, said in the recent years, more than 600,000 people have been displaced from their homes in northwest Nigeria as a result of extreme violence, deteriorating economic conditions, and climate change.
It further cried that, 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 it, while 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”, the statement lamented.
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.”
