Medical charity urges UN to include northwest Nigeria in humanitarian response
JOHANNESBURG
An international medical charity said Tuesday that it is witnessing a catastrophic health crisis in northwest Nigeria because of the extraordinarily high numbers of children being treated with malnutrition.
Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym, MSF, said in a statement since January, teams, in collaboration with Nigerian health authorities, have treated nearly 100,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition.
“We have also admitted about 17,000 children requiring hospital care in 10 inpatient centres in Kano, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kebbi states,” it said in a statement.
MSF appealed to the UN to include northwest Nigeria in a humanitarian response plan and it said the international community must urgently respond to the emergency.
Some of the factors believed to have led to a sharp increase in malnutrition in the region include insecurity, climate change and global inflation of food prices in a post-coronavirus pandemic world.
MSF country representative in Nigeria, Simba Tirima, said officials need international support to deal with a crisis of this magnitude.
