A total of 652 children have died from severe acute malnutrition in Katsina in the year 2025, Doctors Without Borders has revealed.
The international charity organisation, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has been operating in Katsina since 2021, said it recorded an alarming rise in the number of malnourished children brought to its treatment centres in increasingly critical condition.
“This year alone, 652 children have already died in our facilities because they couldn’t get timely access to care,” said MSF’s Country Representative in Nigeria, Ahmed Aldikhari, in a statement issued on Friday.
The organisation also revealed that it recorded a 74.1 per cent increase in the admission of malnourished children into its facilities in Kebbi in the first quarter of 2025.
It added that it treated nearly 70,000 malnourished children in the state, including almost 10,000 who required hospitalisation between January and June of the same year.
According to the group, the crisis has been worsened by deep cuts to international aid, with major donors—including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union—reducing funding.
The organisation stressed that the need for prevention and treatment of malnutrition is enormous in northern Nigeria, saying urgent mobilisation is required.
The year 2024 marked a turning point in northern Nigeria’s nutritional crisis, but the true scale of the crisis this year exceeds all predictions. An increasing number of people can no longer afford to buy food, even though food is available in the markets.
Recall that the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it would suspend emergency food and nutrition aid to 1.3 million people in North-East Nigeria from the end of July.
The organisation cited critical funding shortfalls for the imminent suspension, according to an Al Jazeera report.
It explained that the number of children suffering from the most severe and life-threatening form of malnutrition in Katsina State has surged by more than 200 per cent compared to the same period last year.
However, MSF noted that the impact of food insecurity is not limited to children.
A screening conducted this month in MSF-run malnutrition centres found that more than half of 750 mothers accompanying young patients were themselves acutely malnourished, with 13 per cent classified as severely malnourished.
“The year 2024 marked a turning point in northern Nigeria’s nutritional crisis, but the true scale of the crisis this year exceeds all predictions. An increasing number of people can no longer afford to buy food, even though food is available in the markets,” Mr Aldikhari said.
