Mass screening shows one in four children in Zamfara is malnourished

One out of every four children under the age of five is malnourished in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas of Nigeria’s Zamfara state, according to a mass screening conducted in June by the Ministry of Health and the Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Of the 97,149 children screened in 21 different urban and rural locations, 27% were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, with five percent having severe acute malnutrition.

These concerning figures far exceed the “critical level” threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding malnutrition prevalence, the group said in a statement Tuesday, urging health authorities, international organisations, and donors to immediately intensify their efforts to tackle the escalating malnutrition crisis in Zamfara state and the whole of Northwest Nigeria.

A Pluboard report has uncovered a similar malnutrition crisis in Yobe State, located in Northeast Nigeria.

The mass screening held in June in Zamfara state’s Shinkafi and Zurmi areas further revealed that about 22% of the children screened are moderately malnourished. The nutritional supplies essential to treat such children, also known as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), are unavailable, as UNICEF halted its supplies at the start of the year.

This current lack of humanitarian response to treat those who are moderately malnourished in Northwest Nigeria risks the lives of these children who, without immediate care, will progress to severe acute malnutrition that threatens their survival and compromises their long-term health.

“The screening results from Shinkafi and Zurmi are nothing short of alarming, revealing a catastrophic malnutrition crisis across Northwest Nigeria,” said Abdullahi Mohammad, an MSF representative in Nigeria.

“The response to this overwhelming disaster is grossly insufficient. With malnutrition rates soaring beyond critical levels and no immediate treatment available for moderate acute malnutrition apart from at MSF facilities, we’re effectively letting more children fall into life-threatening conditions. It is crucial we ensure every child receives the medical care they desperately need.”

Worrying Numbers

MSF says it currently runs four inpatient and 17 outpatient facilities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi and Talata Mafara in Zamfara – a state badly affected by malnutrition. Across all four inpatient facilities, MSF teams have treated over 7,000 children from January to July 2024.

The figures for admissions are 34% higher than for the same period in 2023. In Shinkafi and Zurmi, where MSF conducted the recent malnutrition screening, the increase in admissions is 50% more than the same period last year. At the medical facility in Gummi, admissions in July 2024 almost doubled compared to the same month the previous year.

Alongside the significant increase in malnutrition admissions, MSF said its teams saw high numbers of children with vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles. In Zamfara, they have treated at least 5,700 measles cases so far this year.

Infectious diseases like measles, malaria, and acute watery diarrhoea, severely compromise the nutritional status of children. In turn, malnutrition makes them far more susceptible to these illnesses, with a higher risk of death.

Hafsat Lawal, a mother whose child is being treated for malnutrition, said:
“When I first brought my son into the hospital, I didn’t know if he would survive. Back at home, due to insecurity, we are unable to afford food as prices have more than doubled. If we had money, we would have bought some grain but we cannot.”

The health authorities estimate that as of 2023, only about 200 out of 700 healthcare centres in Zamfara are accessible, and the rest are non-functional—one reason is that healthcare workers struggle to reach them.

“Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and facing high levels of insecurity, communities in the Northwest have long been excluded from coordinated humanitarian response. It is essential that health authorities in this area, alongside international organisations and donors, urgently scale up their response,” MSF said.

“Immediate expansion of health facilities is needed to treat malnourished children to ensure that more hospitals can offer the type of inpatient care desperately needed to save lives. Moreover, as the primary supplier of RUTF, UNICEF must ensure the consistent and sufficient delivery of these essential therapeutic foods to prevent more children from falling victim to this crisis.”