Over one million children in North East Nigeria are expected to be acutely malnourished, including over 600,000 facing severe malnutrition, who may die if nothing is done. Over 123,000 pregnant or lactating women are also expected to suffer from acute malnutrition. Conflict and insecurity, as key drivers of the situation, are expected to further deteriorate the situation, leading to decreased food accessibility, possible outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea, measles, and malaria. The nutrition situation may also be negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on socio-economic factors.

Key drivers

The current period levels of malnutrition were aggravated by ongoing conflict in the region, food insecurity, poor water and sanitation (WASH) conditions, high morbidity, and poor Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices. The poor IYCF practices were evidenced by the extremely low prevalence of children having Minimum Acceptable Diets (MAD), which were 1% in Adamawa, 0.9% in Borno and 0.4% in Yobe states and suboptimal breastfeeding practices including low levels of exclusive breastfeeding across all states (Adamawa – 56.3%, Borno – 64.3% and Yobe – 37.6%) and poor complementary feeding practices. Poor WASH conditions, including access to proper sanitation facilities, access to portable and handwashing practices, significantly contributed to acute malnutrition, especially in urban and IDP communities. Other contributing factors included low measles vaccination coverage, poor vitamin A supplementation coverage, anaemia among children aged 6-59 months and high prevalence of diarrhoea and fever. The current situation analysis period was characterized by the harvest season, in which farming communities and IDPs with access to small farms had at least some access to food compared to the lean season of the year. The period was also affected by the ongoing armed conflict, resulting in displacements and disruption of services.