Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has scaled up its emergency response in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, after a sharp rise in child malnutrition and measles cases overwhelmed its facilities.
Between late August and early September, MSF’s Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre at Nilefa Kiji Hospital nearly doubled its bed space, yet by the third week of September was still admitting over 85 children daily. At the Shuwari extension, 3,265 children were treated for malnutrition, with 1,521 referred for ongoing care. More than 625 malnourished children were also treated for measles.
“Our isolation units for measles patients quickly reached capacity and remain 70 percent full,” said MSF Project Coordinator Daniela Batista.
The crisis is worsened by dwindling humanitarian funding, forcing some organizations to suspend nutrition programmes. Essential supplies, including therapeutic milk and ready-to-use therapeutic food, remain scarce.
MSF also reported patients arriving from Zabarmari, a community it cannot currently access due to insecurity, and is engaging the Borno State Ministry of Health to support the local primary health centre.
This surge mirrors an alarming trend across MSF facilities in Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi. The UN estimates that 2.5 million children in northeast Nigeria are at risk of acute malnutrition.
MSF has called for urgent action to address shortages in medical supplies and staffing, and to strengthen community health systems before the situation worsens.
