Katsina: MSF Treats Over 87,000 Children for Acute Malnutrition in Eight Months

Yusuf Bichi

No fewer than 87,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition in Katsina State by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders.

According to a press release made available to Metoric Post, MSF teams treated more than 87,000 children for acute malnutrition in its four outpatient therapeutic feeding centres in Katsina State between January and August 2026.

The statement added that nearly 15,500 of those children were so sick they needed hospital care for severe or complicated conditions due to malnutrition.

MSF noted that while the figure is slightly lower than the more than 95,000 children treated within the same period in 2025, it remains extremely high and is even above what was recorded two years ago.

Dr Raphael Kananga, MSF medical coordinator in Nigeria, said the situation is still deeply concerning.

“This is lower than in 2025, when we treated more than 95,000 children over the same period, but the figure remains extremely high and is even above what we saw two years ago,” Kananga said.

The organisation attributed the slight improvement to better security and improved harvests in 2025, which allowed many displaced families to return home and resume farming.

MSF also commended the Katsina State Government for allocating one billion naira (about €672,500) to fight malnutrition, double the previous allocation, and for expanding its treatment centres from just a few in 2021 to around 400 today.

The organisation, however, warned that funding and access to ready-to-use therapeutic food remain major challenges, especially with aid cuts by the United States and several European countries, including France, Germany and the UK.