Malnutrition: Nigeria Ranks First In Africa, Second Worldwide
Nigeria has been ranked first in Africa and second in the world among countries with the worst malnutrition cases by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In a UNICEF report that was published in 2021 and entitled: “Fed to Fail? The Crisis of Children’s Diets in Early Life”, Nigeria was placed second in the global malnutrition burden with 17 million undernourished children.
The report said that one in three children in the country is diminutive and one in 10 children is wasted, which set the country off-track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 – “Zero Hunger” by 2030.
“From the 2018 National Demography Health Survey, NDHS, 37 per cent of Nigerian children aged between 0 to 59 months are stunted, seven per cent are wasted (thin for their height); 22 per cent are underweight (thin for their age), and two per cent are overweight (heavy for their height). According to the NDHS, South-West has less than seven per cent (6.8) of Global Acute malnutrition and moving up North, it is direr with North-West showcasing 57 per cent in stunting. Only the South-East fared a little low with 18 per cent of children stunted.”
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However, information gathered by the Vanguard revealed that the worsening security challenges, especially in the northern part of the country have led to the rising pangs of malnutrition among Nigerian children.
Read Also: UN: 1.74 million children will suffer malnutrition in North East Nigeria
The Effects Of Insecurity
A woman, Fatimah, has an infant boy named Suleiman that was diagnosed with failure to thrive a form of malnutrition in a UNICEF centre in Sokoto. Suleiman, at the time the report was filed, weighed 2.7 kilos, a weight too low for his age.
According to his mother, Fatimah: “Suleiman became sick after we were sacked from our ancestral home by bandits. We lost our lands, properties and other valuables to bandits and now my son is sick. Bandits attacked our village, Kamitau, about 12 months ago.”
She as well as other mothers together with their ailing infants at the Sabon-Gari Dole Primary Health Centre in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State, are the victims of the persistent activities of bandits as their children are struck with malnutrition.
Experts have said that these children’s condition may worsen with a recent report from the United Nations showed that 14.5 million Nigerians require urgent assistance in order to address their nutrition needs.
SOURCE: Vanguard
