In a special report on the “possibly deteriorating” situation in Borno and Yobe states, FEWS NET, a network set up by USAID to provide early warning on famine and food insecurity, said surveys and screenings indicated Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates “ranging from 20 to nearly 60 percent”.
Levels of GAM recorded in July and last month were well over the 15 percent threshold deemed “critical”, and, in some cases, higher than 50 percent, meaning more than half the children surveyed suffered from moderate or severe acute malnutrition, the report said.
The report further stated that this level of acute malnutrition reflected an “Extreme Critical’ situation … and is associated with a significantly increased risk of child mortality,” stressing that conditions might be even worse in areas that remained inaccessible.
United Nations Child Education Fund (UNICEF) helped to draw attention to the unfolding crisis in the Northeast in July, highlighting the fact that an estimated 244,000 children faced severe malnourishment in Borno alone, and warning that an estimated 49,000, one in five, would die if they didn’t receive treatment.
Head of Communication for Action Contre La Faim, Action Against Hunger, which conducted several of the surveys, Elizabeth Wright, said the situation represented the worst humanitarian crisis and suffering since World War II.
“We are seeing a horrifying prevalence of malnutrition that far exceeds emergency thresholds, and people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity,” she stated.
The latest red flag from FEWS NET draws attention to places such as Banki town and Bama, in Borno State, where the threat of Boko Haram violence continues to limit movement and prevent humanitarian access.
Wright noted that much of the latest data was based on Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screenings of children under five, which could give a good reading of the trend but were not as technically sound for showing malnutrition prevalence as fuller nutritional assessments.
She said it was vital that humanitarian actors should be able to conduct technically-sound nutrition assessments in newly accessible areas of Borno to quantify the scale and severity of needs and to guide the most appropriate, effective humanitarian response.
