A 41.8% rise in children treated for acute malnutrition highlights a deepening emergency in northern Nigeria, where MSF is pairing lifesaving nutrition care with mental health support for exhausted caregivers.
Fatima Ibrahim sat beside her 23-month-old daughter in a nutrition ward in Maiduguri, grateful for the child’s slow recovery from meningitis and repeated seizures, but unable to stop thinking about the eight children she had left at home. Her experience reflects a wider emergency across northern Nigeria, where hunger, conflict and displacement are driving a severe malnutrition crisis that is affecting families far beyond the hospital bed.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 34.7 million people in Nigeria face crisis-level food insecurity during the lean season, while more than 5.4 million children are acutely malnourished. In the north-east, where Borno, Adamawa and Yobe remain under intense strain, aid agencies say conflict and climate shocks are disrupting livelihoods and food production, and by 2026 nearly 5.8 million people could be severely food insecure. The World Food Programme has warned that insecurity is also making it harder to deliver assistance to people who need it most.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says the scale of child malnutrition it is treating has risen sharply. In 2025, the organisation provided care for 425,634 children with acute malnutrition across northern Nigeria, a rise of 41.8% on the previous year, according to MSF’s figures. Of those treated, 353,989 had severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous form, and 90,723 had moderate acute malnutrition. MSF says the increase reflects a toxic mix of insecurity, displacement, disease outbreaks, poverty and cuts to humanitarian funding.
At its Nilefa Kiji facility in Maiduguri, MSF says children often arrive dangerously wasted and already ill with conditions such as measles, diphtheria or malaria, because malnutrition weakens the immune system. But the organisation argues that the crisis cannot be understood only in medical terms. Monica Genya, association director at MSF Southern Africa, said caregivers, most often mothers, are carrying fear, guilt, anxiety and exhaustion while trying to care for a sick child and worrying about others left at home. She said these pressures can affect whether families stay in treatment and follow medical advice after discharge.
To respond, MSF has built mental health and psychosocial support into its nutrition work. At facilities such as Nilefa Kiji, caregivers receive psychological first aid, individual counselling and group sessions, while children take part in structured play meant to restore a sense of normal life during recovery. Counselors also help families contact relatives or make short supervised home visits when needed. Genya said the approach is meant to recognise that healing is not only about restoring a child’s weight, but also about helping exhausted caregivers hold their families together as the hunger crisis deepens.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
