Doctors Without Borders – Medical Aid Group, has called on the United Nations to add northwest Nigeria to its humanitarian response plan following the high numbers of children suffering from malnutrition.
The group said it has treated nearly 100,000 children in the region for malnutrition this year.
In a communique issued this week, the medical group, Head of Mission in Nigeria, Froukje Pelsma warned that malnutrition among children in northwest Nigeria has risen. It, therefore, called for an immediate response from the global humanitarian community.
However, this is the second time in three months that the group has raised serious concerns about the malnutrition crisis in Nigeria, following an alarm in July.
It would be recalled that Northwest Nigeria has been hard-hit by militant attacks and raids by kidnap-for-ransom gangs since late 2020.
But the group noted that climate change and soaring food prices have made matters worse.
Pelsma added, “We have scaled our response. We’re almost at a limit basically because we cannot handle this alone. This is why we’re asking for more people to come”.
He also said more than 30 organizations are working in the northeastern part of the country but only three or four agencies in the northwest working on malnutrition.
“We want people, most especially the U.N. and other agencies, to look beyond the northeast,” she said.
