By Abdullahi Lukman
Nigeria has surpassed Sudan to become the country with the highest number of malnourished children in Africa and the second highest globally, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced last Monday.
Speaking at a media briefing organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the 2025 lean season multisectoral response, UNICEF chief of nutrition section, Nemat Hajeebhoy, revealed that 600,000 children in Nigeria are suffering from acute malnutrition.
She further warned that half of these children are at high risk of developing severe acute malnutrition, significantly increasing their vulnerability to death.
This alarming statistic coincides with a statement from a World Food Programme (WFP) official, Serigne Loum, who noted that Nigeria also has the highest number of food-insecure people on the African continent.
The dire revelations come as OCHA urgently appeals for $300 million in funding to address the persistent food and nutrition crisis in Nigeria’s North-East states.
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Trond Jensen, OCHA head of office, emphasized that $160 million of this sum is critically needed to tackle issues related to food insecurity, nutrition, water, and sanitation.
He expressed deep concern over the widening gap between the escalating needs, with severe acute malnutrition cases doubling in the past year, and the decreasing capacity to respond effectively.
OCHA is currently targeting two million people with its response efforts.
Jensen called upon state governments and international organizations to contribute to the urgently needed funding.
He highlighted the paradoxical situation where the severity of the crisis is increasing while the resources to address it are dwindling.
The recent findings mark a significant shift from the previous year, where the Global Hunger Index listed Sudan as the country most affected by poverty.
The World Bank’s Africa’s Pulse report from April 2025 also indicated Nigeria accounts for 19 percent of extremely poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa and projected a further increase in poverty levels in Nigeria by 2027.
