Over 600 malnourished children die in six months in Nigeria: MSF
Cases of the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition among children jumped by 208 percent between January and June compared with the same period last year.
"Unfortunately, 652 children have already died in our facilities since the beginning of 2025 due to a lack of timely access to care," the charity, which is known by its French initials, said in a statement released Friday.
Huge cuts in foreign aid sparked by US President Donald Trump's decision to slash spending overseas have combined with spiking living costs and a surge in jihadist attacks to create a dire situation in northern Nigeria.
Ahmed Aldikhari, country representative of MSF in Nigeria, said the cuts from the United States -- but also from the United Kingdom and European Union -- were hampering treatment and care for malnourished children.
He said "the true scale of the crisis exceeds all predictions".
Pregnant and breastfeeding women have not been spared, as an MSF survey on 750 mothers showed that more than half of them were "acutely malnourished, including 13 percent with severe acute malnutrition".
Across the country a record nearly 31 million people face acute hunger, according to David Stevenson, chief of the UN's food agency (WFP) in Nigeria.
WFP warned earlier this week it would be forced to suspend all emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in northeast Nigeria at the end of July because of critical funding shortfalls.
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France 24
19 hours ago
- France 24
WHO says malnutrition reaching 'alarming levels' in Gaza
"Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July," the WHO said in a statement. Of the 74 recorded malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 had occurred in July -- including 24 children under five, one child aged over five, and 38 adults, it added. "Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting," the UN health agency said. "The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives." Nearly one in five children under five in Gaza City is now acutely malnourished, the WHO said, citing its Nutrition Cluster partners. It said the percentage of children aged six to 59 months suffering from acute malnutrition had tripled in the city since June, making it the worst-hit area in the Palestinian territory. In Khan Yunis and middle Gaza, those rates have doubled in less than a month, it added. "These figures are likely an underestimation due to the severe access and security constraints preventing many families from reaching health facilities," the WHO said. Israel on Sunday began a limited "tactical pause" in military operations to allow the UN and aid agencies to tackle a deepening hunger crisis. But the WHO called for sustained efforts to "flood" the Gaza Strip with diverse, nutritious food, and for the expedited delivery of therapeutic supplies for children and vulnerable groups, plus essential medicines and supplies. "This flow must remain consistent and unhindered to support recovery and prevent further deterioration", the Geneva-based agency said.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Over 600 malnourished children die in six months in Nigeria: MSF
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said northern Nigeria, which already is struggling with an insurgency, is "currently facing an alarming malnutrition crisis". Cases of the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition among children jumped by 208 percent between January and June compared with the same period last year. "Unfortunately, 652 children have already died in our facilities since the beginning of 2025 due to a lack of timely access to care," the charity, which is known by its French initials, said in a statement released Friday. Huge cuts in foreign aid sparked by US President Donald Trump's decision to slash spending overseas have combined with spiking living costs and a surge in jihadist attacks to create a dire situation in northern Nigeria. Ahmed Aldikhari, country representative of MSF in Nigeria, said the cuts from the United States -- but also from the United Kingdom and European Union -- were hampering treatment and care for malnourished children. He said "the true scale of the crisis exceeds all predictions". Pregnant and breastfeeding women have not been spared, as an MSF survey on 750 mothers showed that more than half of them were "acutely malnourished, including 13 percent with severe acute malnutrition". Across the country a record nearly 31 million people face acute hunger, according to David Stevenson, chief of the UN's food agency (WFP) in Nigeria. WFP warned earlier this week it would be forced to suspend all emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in northeast Nigeria at the end of July because of critical funding shortfalls.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
'Famine', 'starvation': the challenges in defining Gaza's plight
But the difficulty of getting to the most affected areas in the Palestinian territory, besieged by Israel, means there are huge challenges in gathering the required data. What is a famine? The internationally-agreed definition for famine is outlined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative of 21 organisations and institutions including UN agencies and aid groups. The IPC definition has three elements. Firstly, at least 20 percent of households must have an extreme lack of food and face starvation or destitution. Second, acute malnutrition in children under five exceeds 30 percent. And third, there is an excess mortality threshold of two in 10,000 people dying per day. Once these criteria are met, governments and UN agencies can declare a famine. What is the situation in Gaza? Available indicators are alarming regarding the food situation in Gaza. "A large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving", according to the World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Food deliveries are "far below what is needed for the survival of the population", he said, calling it "man-made... mass starvation". Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday that a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, blaming Israel's "deliberate use of starvation as a weapon". Almost a third of people in Gaza are "not eating for days" and malnutrition is surging, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday. The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday said that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the previous 72 hours "due to malnutrition and starvation". The very few foodstuffs in the markets are inaccessible, with a kilogramme (two pounds) of flour reaching the exorbitant price of $100, while the Gaza Strip's agricultural land has been ravaged by the war. According to NGOs, the 20 or so aid trucks that enter the territory each day -- vastly insufficient for more than two million hungry people -- are systematically looted. "It's become a technical point to explain that we're in acute food insecurity, IPC4, which affects almost the entire population. It doesn't resonate with people," said Amande Bazerolle, in charge of MSF's emergency response in Gaza. "Yet we're hurtling towards famine -- that's a certainty." What are the challenges in gathering data? NGOs and the WHO concede that gathering the evidence required for a famine declaration is extremely difficult. "Currently we are unable to conduct the surveys that would allow us to formally classify famine," said Bazerolle. She said it was "impossible" for them to screen children, take their measurements, or assess their weight-to-height ratio. Jean-Raphael Poitou, Middle East programme director for the NGO Action Against Hunger, said the "continuous displacements" of Gazans ordered by the Israeli military, along with restrictions on movement in the most affected regions; "complicate things enormously". Nabil Tabbal, incident manager at the WHO's emergency programme, said there were "challenges regarding data, regarding access to information". Can famine still be avoided? For France's foreign ministry, malnutrition and the "risk of famine" is the "result of the blockade imposed by Israel". The Israeli military denies it is blocking humanitarian aid entering Gaza. On Tuesday it claimed that 950 truckloads of aid were inside the Strip waiting for collection and distribution by international organisations. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer insisted there was "no famine caused by Israel. There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas." Hamas has consistently denied that. The New York Times on Saturday reported that, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved, "the Israeli military never found proof" supporting the official Israeli allegation. NGOs have accused Israel of imposing drastic restrictions. More than 100 NGOs -- including MSF, Caritas, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Medecins du Monde, Christian Aid and Oxfam -- have urged Israel to open all land crossings and "restore the full flow of food" into Gaza. What does a famine declaration tell us? A fresh Gaza IPC assessment is due very soon. For some, the technical debates over a famine declaration seem futile given the urgency of the situation. "Any famine declaration... comes too late," explained Jean-Martin Bauer, the WFP's director of food security and nutrition analysis. In Somalia in 2011, when famine was formally declared, half of the total number of victims of the disaster had already died of starvation. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023. The Israeli campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
