More than 600 malnourished children have died across northern Nigeria this year as humanitarian aid rapidly dries up, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned.
The medical charity said its teams treated nearly 70,000 children for malnutrition in Katsina state alone in the first half of 2025. Nearly 10,000 of those cases required hospitalisation.
MSF described the crisis as “alarming”, noting a 208 percent surge in nutritional oedema — the deadliest form of child malnutrition — compared to last year.
“Sadly, 652 children have already died in our facilities this year due to delayed access to treatment,” MSF said in a statement on Friday.
The deepening emergency comes as international funding shrinks, following US President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to foreign aid. Britain and the European Union have also slashed support.
Rising food prices and escalating jihadist and criminal violence have worsened conditions in the region, where farming is increasingly unsafe and climate extremes limit food production.
“The true scale of the crisis exceeds all predictions,” said Ahmed Aldikhari, MSF’s representative in Nigeria.
A recent MSF survey of 750 mothers found that over half were acutely malnourished — 13 percent of them severely so.
Local officials acknowledged the crisis but questioned the charity’s figures. “Yes, there are deaths, but those numbers may be exaggerated,” said Abdulhadi Abdulkadir, Katsina’s state nutrition officer.
He confirmed that malnutrition is worst in the north, where the harsh Sahel climate stunts agriculture, while criminal gangs have made farming perilous in the more fertile south.
The Katsina government doubled its nutrition budget to ₦1 billion (\$660,000) this year.
Yet with nearly 31 million Nigerians facing acute hunger, the UN World Food Programme now warns it will halt emergency aid for 1.3 million people by the end of July due to critical funding shortfalls.