Save the Children International has revealed catastrophic climate disasters, escalating insecurity, and soaring prices threaten to leave over 16 million children hungry.
Its Country Director, Duncan Harvey in a statement issued Tuesday added that an additional one million children in Nigeria will be suffering from acute malnutrition by April 2025 without urgent action as extreme flooding, escalating violence and rampant food shortages fuel a deepening hunger crisis.
It said the analysis of new hunger data from Cadre Harmonisé—the leading regional authority on the severity of hunger crises in the Sahel and West Africa—showed that 5.4 million children are now at risk of facing acute malnutrition by next April, a 25 per cent increase compared to the 4.4 per cent in April, 2024.
The Country Director stressed that about 1.8 million 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 diarrhea, potentially lethal.
He added that this represents an alarming 80 per cent increase in SAM cases.
Harvey explained that during this year’s lean season — the season between harvests — about 31.8 million people were estimated to be facing crisis or worse acute food insecurity.
He noted: “An additional one million children in Nigeria will be suffering from acute malnutrition by April next year without urgent action as extreme flooding, escalating violence and rampant food shortages fuel a deepening hunger crisis.
“In Nigeria, the crisis is reaching unprecedented levels as catastrophic climate disasters, escalating insecurity, and soaring prices threaten to leave over 16 million children hungry.
“Urgent action is essential to combat this devastating and unacceptable trend of child hunger and malnutrition and ensure a brighter future for Nigeria’s children.
“Next year it’s predicted that 33 million people in Nigeria will not know where their next meal will come from, including over 16 million children.
Harvey emphasised that hunger has risen sharply in Nigeria in recent years, up from about 7 per cent of the population analysed by the UN in 2020 to 15 per cent currently..
He pointed out that the situation is particularly dire in the Northwest and Northeast of the country, where ongoing conflict and insecurity are driving displacement and disrupting livelihoods.