Malnutrition

Malnutrition: a symptom of growing food insecurity

We eat when we have food, but there are days when we go hungry, and sometimes the children have to beg for food.

Sadiya, whose child was treated for malnutrition at MSF’s therapeutic feeding centre in Katsina, Nigeria.

MSF has been treating acute malnutrition since our founders first responded in Biafra, a territory now part of southern Nigeria, in 1971. In the five decades since, we’ve taken advantage of new therapeutic foods and adapted protocols to help prevent and cure acute malnutrition in crisis contexts where people are deprived of life-sustaining nutrition and healthcare.

Severe acute malnutrition is linked to a high risk of death in children, who face a vicious cycle: a child who is malnourished is more susceptible to disease, and a sick child more prone to malnutrition. Communities, families and caregivers can struggle to meet their children’s very important nutritional needs due to a range of factors. In 2023, the situation was catastrophic for people in multiple countries, including Nigeria, Niger, Democratic Republic and Chad. On the one hand we saw key drivers of food insecurity— conflict, economic and financial crisis, and climate disruption—exacerbated and, on the other, a crisis in the resources needed to deal with them.

In northern Nigeria, the numbers of acutely malnourished children escalated early. By the time the annual ‘lean season’ started in May – the period between harvests when stocks of food run low –several of our inpatient therapeutic feeding centres were already full. We urgently added beds and staff, and opened additional outpatient centres to treat children without severe complications and enable them to recover at home.

We also publicly called on aid organisations, the government and local health authorities, to immediately scale up care, but also provide food support for affected communities.

In eastern Chad, malnutrition was also on the rise, the Sudan war driving people across the border into conditions where they could barely subsist. On a single day in Adré health centre in November we assessed 567 children, referring the most severe to hospital, while those who could be treated at home received therapeutic food and treatment to take until their next follow-up medical consultation.

In the face of a limited humanitarian response, we were very pleased to be able to partner with the World Food Programme, receiving enriched flourbased supplies to care for malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls and to support the most vulnerable families with protective rations.