At least 652 children have died of malnutrition in northern Nigeria so far this year, according to MSF

At least 652 children have died of malnutrition this year in the Nigerian state of Katsina, in the north of the country, where famine has increased dueto cuts in humanitarian funds by the US and European countries, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) has warned.

"We are seeing massive budget cuts, particularly from the US, the UK and the European Union, that are having a real impact on the treatment of children with food shortages," said Ahmed Aldikhari, MSF's representative in Nigeria, in a statement.

From the beginning of the year until the end of last June, nearly 70,000 children received medical care from MSF teams in Katsina, 10,000 of whom have had to be hospitalized in a serious condition.

Similarly, the number of children with nutritional edema, which is the most serious and deadly form of malnutrition, increased by 208 per cent over the same period in 2024, the organization has warned.

"Since the beginning of 2025, 652 children have already died in our facilities as a result of lack of timely health care," the statement released this Friday said.

In this context of extreme hunger and continued violence, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday that it would suspend emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in northeastern Nigeria by the end of July, owing to a "critical shortage" of funding.

According to Nigeria's WFP director, David Stevenson, nearly 31 million people in Nigeria are starving, an "unprecedented" figure.

In the northern regions where the conflict is intense, the escalation of violence by jihadist groups - Boo Haram and, since 2016, the Islamic State  (ISWAP) in the West African Province, which has been separated from it since 2016 - is leading to massive displacements, the humanitarian agency recalls.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with more than 213 million inhabitants, and one of the main oil producers, as well as one of the continent's largest economies.

However, four out of ten Nigerians live below the poverty line , according to the World Bank.

The freezing of international aid promised by the US President last January and the humanitarian budget cuts announced by other European countries have exacerbated the shortage of NGO funds and put the lives and health of millions of people around the world, and especially in Africa, at risk.