Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international medical humanitarian organization, has highlighted a significant decline in the level of humanitarian support to address critical needs in northern Nigeria.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, emphasizes an ongoing humanitarian crisis marked by severe malnutrition and recurring preventable disease outbreaks in the northwest.
The organization in a statement released on Tuesday, pointed out that donors and aid organizations are largely overlooking the situation.
It said over 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.
The organization said despite encouraging signs of mobilization from humanitarian actors and donors in 2023, the funding and aid currently available are vastly insufficient for people’s growing humanitarian needs.
“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 is alarming,” it said.
The MSF head of mission, Ahmed Bilal said, the organization has repeatedly expressed concerns to the UN and donors about the alarming and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the northwest.
Mr Bilal said lack of recognition of the crisis is having severe impact on the health and humanitarian needs of the population,
and delaying the response which is desperately needed.
Humanitarian Crisis
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.
Also, people have lost their livelihoods, and are often no longer able to reach their farms for security reasons.
MSF noted that the crisis has seen rates of malnutrition and other diseases spiral. It said 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.
The statement reads in part; “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 per cent of the surveyed children suffering from acute malnutrition in Jibia LGA at the beginning of the lean season, so not even when access to food is the most difficult.
“The high rate of admissions to inpatient facilities has been accompanied by alarming mortality rates, as was the case in one of our supported facilities in Zamfara state where it reached 23.1 per cent.”
It said sadly, many children are dying within 48 hours after arriving in critical conditions, too late to be saved due to the barriers in reaching healthcare.
It noted that overall, 854 children admitted to MSF facilities in the northwest died 24 to 48-hours after admission in 2023.
Offering help
The NGO said security constraints are making it increasingly hard for aid agencies to gain access to certain areas, while escalating violence is impacting and sometimes preventing their work.
Last September, MSF teams in Zamfara state were forced to stop supporting an inpatient nutrition facility in Anka, and in December, MSF staff were temporarily evacuated from Zurmi due to heavy fighting taking place next to the hospital.
It added that in 2023, there were some small signs from donors and aid organizations of increasing interest and mobilization in northwest Nigeria.
However, the funding has not been forthcoming and, in a climate of global aid cuts, the few aid agencies working in the region do not have the capacity to scale up their work.
MSF country representative, Dr Simba Tirima said there are concerns about forthcoming reductions in funding activities for some organizations amid global cuts to humanitarian assistance.
Dr Tirima said while MSF does not rely on governmental or institutional funds for its activities, this is not the case for most aid organizations in the northwest, whose funding depends heavily on the UN’s Humanitarian Response Plan.
He noted that there were hopeful signs for the northwest last year, but a series of opportunities have been missed and the same cannot happen again in 2024.
“This year might become the worst year yet in terms of humanitarian needs and suffering for the population,” he said.
About MSF
MSF has been working in Nigeria since 1996. In northwest Nigeria, MSF teams currently work in 28 outpatient and seven inpatient therapeutic feeding centres across Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kano and Kebbi states.
In northeast Nigeria, MSF teams work in Maiduguri hospital in Borno state and Kafin Madaki hospital in Bauchi state. In 2023, MSF teams across Nigeria treated 202,083 malnourished children in outpatient feeding programmes and provided inpatient care to 52,124 children with severe acute malnutrition.