Health officials say malnutrition is deepening in the Northeast and threatening the survival of children in the region due to corruption and insecurity.
Abdullahi Madi, deputy state nutrition officer, Borno State stated that corruption and misuse of interventions as well as the persisting conflict are major reasons why the situation has not improved and the statistics have remained grim.
Madi noted that hundreds of thousands of children are suffering from malnutrition in the region especially in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. In Borno alone, he disclosed that more than 85,000 children were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition in the last seven months.
He decried that some basic interventions such as the ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), micronutrient powder are being diverted and sold off, hence they do not get to the beneficiaries.
Madi said this at a three-day national media dialogue on child undernutrition organised by the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the federal ministry of information and culture in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in Maiduguri.
According to him, health workers and caregivers often connive to sell off the products or admit healthy children in order to receive and sell off the products.
In other cases, he alleged that some caregivers give some substance to their children to induce diarrhoea forcing the child to become malnourished so that they can obtain and sell the nutrients for money.
He said: “We have a lot of interventions on malnutrition supported by UNICEF and other partners such as support groups, sensitization programmes, cashless transfer among others.
“Despite all these interventions, we still have issues of malnutrition, simply because when you give them RUTF especially the caregivers and health workers, they will just go and sell it, they will misuse it; that is the biggest challenge we are having in Borno.
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“Another issue is that some caregivers will just create artificial malnutrition in their children so that they can get the RUTF and sell. We are investigating to take necessary action. Other challenges are inadequate funding from the government and insecurity
Since 2017, statistics show that 3,522 children have died from malnutrition. The UK Department for Integrated Development (DFID), has contributed some $10 million towards the treatment of malnourished children.
However, Sangita Jacob Duggal, nutrition manager, UNICEF said malnutrition was worsening.
She explained that the consumption of basic nutrients and other key nutritional practices decreased significantly in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno State in five years.
For example, she said the minimum acceptable diet in the states among children from 6-24 months did not improve with 4 percent in Borno, 7 percent in Adamawa and 9 percent in Yobe state.
She also informed that over 60 percent of women including adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 49 are anaemic in Borno and Yobe
“This is absolutely not acceptable, our children are not eating and it is a big challenge. We must provide care for our children before 24 months to improve human capital development.”
According to Duggal, the severity of malnutrition deepened due to poor awareness on nutritional practices, prevalence of certain myths, COVID-19 pandemic and poverty.
She also disclosed that donor funding to tackle malnutrition is declining, hence, the need for all stakeholders to refocus on prevention of malnutrition rather than treatment which involves huge costs.
According to her, the poor preventive practices also contributed to worsening the state of malnutrition in the region.
The officer-in-charge, UNICEF Maiduguri chief of field office, Samuel Sesay in his address, said malnutrition is the biggest threat to child survival and development in the region.
“There is no sugar coating it- malnutrition is the underlining cause of nearly half of all deaths in under-five children globally and it is currently the biggest threat to child survival and development in northeast Nigeria.
“Households in the region are experiencing unprecedented levels of food crisis and hunger. Household food insecurity, poor infant and young child feeding and care practices, as well as poor feeding environment, hygiene and health services have been identified as the underlying causes of undernutrition in children. ”
Sesay explained that the importance of good nutrition on children’s development has far-reaching impact on child education, health, adult earning power, individual and family finance as well as the country’s economy.
He stressed that early detection, referral, and good management of severe acute malnutrition in children remains key in saving children under the age of five from preventable deaths.
He, therefore, urged governments of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states to increase their respective budgetary allocations and timely release of funds for nutrition, and also engage a multi-sectoral approach where all relevant ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs)/combine efforts to address the undernutrition in the region.
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