The Federal Government, the United Nations and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have called for stronger investment in Nigeria’s health system and improved coordination among stakeholders to tackle malnutrition and other humanitarian challenges affecting vulnerable communities.
The call was made in Abuja at an event marking the 30th anniversary of MSF’s operations in Nigeria.
The Federal Government disclosed that nearly 6.4 million children aged between zero and 59 months are suffering from acute malnutrition, including about two million cases of severe acute malnutrition.
Representing the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Project Office, Dr Aishetu Gogo Ndayako Mohammed, said the three decades of MSF operations in Nigeria represented ‘compassion, humanity, solidarity and service to people in need.’
She said MSF had played a significant role in communities affected by conflict, displacement, disease outbreaks, malnutrition and other humanitarian emergencies.
According to her, the organisation’s experience in emergency response, maternal and child healthcare, nutrition and disease control offered valuable lessons for strengthening Nigeria’s health system.
Representing the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, the Director of Internal Cooperation, Dr Sampson Ebimaro, said MSF treated more than 444,000 children for malnutrition in 2025.
He said more than 353,000 children were treated through outpatient feeding programmes, while over 90,000 received treatment at stabilisation centres.
Ebimaro said MSF also treated more than 341,000 malaria patients, assisted with over 35,590 deliveries and conducted 224 fistula surgeries during the year.
He said the organisation also responded to outbreaks of cholera, measles, diphtheria and Lassa fever.
According to him, MSF operated in 10 states in 2025, including Bauchi, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara, while expanding its presence to Anambra and Niger states.
He said government had a responsibility to ensure that humanitarian interventions complemented national priorities while strengthening local capacity.
‘The ultimate measure of our success is not how many interventions we deliver, but whether we build the capacity of Nigerian institutions to deliver those interventions and sustain them whenever MSF decides to hand over operations to the host state,’ he said.
Ebimaro also cited MSF data showing a 330 per cent increase in measles cases in Zamfara State in 2025 compared with 2024.
He said treatment centres in Sokoto recorded peak bed occupancy of 183 per cent, with an 8.1 per cent mortality rate among children admitted to the centres.
Representing the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, described MSF as a dependable partner whose interventions had contributed to healthcare delivery and strengthened community resilience.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator (a.i.), Ms Elsie Attafuah, said the impact of MSF’s 30 years of operations in Nigeria should ultimately be measured by the lives saved.
She said MSF treated more than 400,000 children for acute malnutrition in 2025, while supporting maternal and newborn care, nutrition services and noma treatment.
Attafuah called for humanitarian interventions to be increasingly linked with longer-term recovery efforts.
‘A rebuilt home needs clean water, a reopened clinic needs trained staff and medicines, and a family returning to farming needs safety and access to markets,’ she said.
She also called for the protection of MSF’s independent, impartial and neutral medical action, while urging better coordination between humanitarian, development and peacebuilding efforts.
The MSF Country Representative, Dr Aldikhari Ahmed, said the organisation’s operations in Nigeria began in 1996 when it responded to a meningitis epidemic in Kano, Bauchi and Katsina states.
He said MSF had since expanded its activities to maternal and child health, nutrition, vaccination, surgery, tuberculosis and HIV care, as well as emergency responses to conflict, displacement and disease outbreaks.
Ahmed, however, said the scale of Nigeria’s health challenges required collective action.
‘We cannot treat our way out of all of this, but we must try to prevent it,’ he said.
He said malnutrition, disease and displacement were interconnected and required a coordinated response.
Ahmed reaffirmed MSF’s commitment to providing medical care based solely on need, irrespective of nationality, religion, ethnicity or political affiliation.
For noma survivor Useni Usman, the anniversary was also an opportunity to recount how MSF’s intervention changed his life.
Usman said noma had subjected him to stigma and rejection before he received free treatment and surgery at the Noma Children’s Hospital.
He said the intervention transformed his life and later enabled him to work with MSF, where he now raises awareness about noma prevention in communities.
Usman added that his employment had also enabled him to pursue a university degree.
‘I never thought I would be able to stand before people like this,’ he said, thanking MSF for changing his life.
The stakeholders stressed that while humanitarian organisations remained critical to saving lives during emergencies, stronger domestic investment in healthcare, improved coordination and sustainable local capacity were necessary to ensure vulnerable Nigerians continued to receive quality healthcare.