THESHIELD Garkuwa
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By Sani Gazas Chinade, Maiduguri
The Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said that malnutrition and hunger have hit 2, 140 children living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and host communities of Borno State.
According to the doctors without borders, there should an urgent scale up of humanitarian responses to save children’s lives in the State,
The MSF Country head of mission, Shaukat Muttaqi, yesterday (Friday), in Maiduguri, stated that there is unfrequented influx of malnourished children at the Therapeutic Feeding Centre, Maiduguri.
He warned that the hunger gap peak period in the state could be much more severe than previous years if current trends continue.
Besides, he added that it is critical that action is taken during seasonal malnutrition peak an even worse malnutrition crisis in Borno.
“It is critical that action is taken now, in advance of the seasonal malnutrition peak. This is to avoid an even worse situation,” he said.
He noted that; already the treatment centre is overwhelmed with more patients than on a monthly basis since the 2017 project.
“Previous trends tell us the worst is still to come,” he further warned.
Continuing, he said that unless urgent steps are taken to prepare for the looming peak, people in Maiduguri will suffer deadly consequences.
According to him, in May the outpatient therapeutic feeding programme had 25 per cent increase in enrolments of malnourished children.
He lamented that in June there were not enough beds for all the malnourished children being admitted.
“In some cases organisations have had to reduce services due to a lack of funding,” he said, as well as the closure of 16 much-needed outpatient therapeutic feeding centres.
