Save the Children International (SCI) has raised concern over the recent disclosure that one million children would be malnourished by April 2025 if urgent actions are not taken.
  
The Cadre Harmonise report revealed that extreme flooding, escalating violence and rampant food shortage have deepened the hunger crisis in the country, leading to malnourishment in children
   
The regional report also showed the severity of hunger crises in the Sahel and West Africa, indicating that 5.4 million children are at risk of facing acute malnutrition in the region by next April, representing an increase compared to the 4.4 million records of April 2024.
   
It noted that among the figure, about 1.8 million children in the region could be experiencing Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM),  the deadliest form of malnutrition that compromises children’s immune systems and turns otherwise treatable illnesses, such as diarrhoea, potentially lethal, representing an alarming 80 per cent increase in SAM cases. 
   
Aisha, a 27-year-old mother of six, while speaking at the Save the Children’s clinic in Damaturu, noted: “Hunger has entered my daughter’s body, and she has emaciated terribly because I am unable to breastfeed her. I don’t produce breast milk. It has affected her growth compared to other children; she was stooling profusely.” 
  
SCI observed that during this year’s lean season, about 31.8 million people were estimated to be facing crisis or worse acute food insecurity,  saying next year, it is predicted that 33 million people in Nigeria will not know where their next meal would come from, including over 16 million children. 
   
They raised concern that hunger had risen sharply in Nigeria in recent years, up from about seven per cent of the population analysed by the United Nations in 2020 to 15 per cent currently, saying the situation is particularly dire in the Northwest and Northeast, where ongoing conflict and insecurity were driving displacement and disrupting livelihoods. 
  
 Hajara 15, a child campaigner from Katsina, said: “I am so worried about how food insecurity is hitting children in our community.

With banditry everywhere, farmers cannot go to farms, so food is getting harder to find. Lots of children go to bed hungry, and malnutrition is going up, leaving us tired and unable to concentrate in school. We need our leaders to step up, bring security back, and help us get the support we need so every child here can grow up safe, well-fed, and healthy.”
   
Save the Children’s Country Director for Nigeria, Duncan Harvey said the crisis was reaching unprecedented levels, as catastrophic climate disasters, escalating insecurity, and soaring prices threaten to leave over 16 million children hungry.