MSF Treats Over 87,000 Malnourished Children in Katsina

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treated more than 87,000 children for acute malnutrition in Katsina State between January and August 2026. This figure, while lower than the over 95,000 treated during the same period in 2025, remains alarmingly high.

MSF reported that nearly 15,500 children required hospitalization for severe or complicated malnutrition conditions in the first eight months of 2026, compared to approximately 16,500 in 2025. Dr Raphael Kananga, MSF’s Medical Coordinator in Nigeria, stated that the situation remains critical, particularly due to the prevalence of kwashiorkor, a severe form of malnutrition.

MSF has established a specialized unit within its inpatient therapeutic feeding center in Katsina to address this issue. Badiyya Shafi’u shared her experience of recognizing her child's kwashiorkor, noting significant improvement after treatment.

MSF attributed the ongoing malnutrition crisis to factors such as poverty, inflation, insecurity, population displacement, disease outbreaks, and extreme weather events.