The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF said on Thursday that about 2.5 million children under the age of five in Nigeria suffer severe acute malnutrition.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire UNICEF’s nutrition specialist, Abigail Nyukuri, stated this at a two-day media dialogue on an integrated and timely response to nutrition-related humanitarian needs, organised in Maiduguri, Borno State. According to her, an estimated 440,000 boys and girls under the age of five in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe States are affected by the disease in 2019.
Nyukuri, who revealed that the prevalence rates of severe acute malnutrition in the three North-East states are 11, six, and 13 percents respectively, blamed protracted access constraints and insecurity in the region for the worsening situation.
She said, The protracted conditions have made the severe acute malnutrition situation even worse in Rann (Kala Balge), South Yobe, Magumeri, Jere, and Konduga Local Government Areas .
UNICEF warned that the key consequence of the abysmal feeding situation in several parts of Nigeria would be increased poverty levels in years to come.
