Nigeria Tops Africa in Child Malnutrition, Surpassing War-Torn Sudan — UNICEF
Nigeria has overtaken war-torn Sudan to become the country with the highest number of malnourished children in Africa and the second highest in the world, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The troubling announcement was made on Monday by Nemat Hajeebhoy, Chief of Nutrition at UNICEF Nigeria, during a media briefing on the 2025 lean season multisectoral response organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Hajeebhoy revealed that over 600,000 children in Nigeria currently suffer from acute malnutrition, with half of them at risk of developing severe acute malnutrition, a condition that significantly increases the risk of death. This situation, she warned, demands urgent intervention.
Supporting this grim outlook, Serigne Loum of the World Food Programme added that Nigeria also leads Africa in the number of food-insecure individuals. The revelation comes amid a renewed call from the UN for emergency funding to respond to the deepening food and nutrition crisis, particularly in Nigeria’s North-East region.
OCHA’s head of office in Nigeria, Trond Jensen, stated that the UN needs at least $300 million to respond adequately to the crisis, with $160 million of that amount specifically allocated for food security, nutrition, water, and sanitation. Jensen noted the disturbing paradox that while the number of children requiring emergency nutrition support has doubled in the past year, the resources available to meet those needs have been cut in half.
The UN agency aims to reach two million people affected by food and nutrition-related challenges, but the scale of the problem far exceeds current funding and capacity.
These developments are echoed in the World Bank’s April 2025 Africa’s Pulse report, which states that Nigeria accounts for 19 percent of extremely poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report paints a bleak future, projecting that poverty in the country will worsen by 2027.
As international organizations raise the alarm, the crisis highlights the urgent need for coordinated efforts between the Nigerian government, donors, and global partners to prevent the humanitarian situation from further deteriorating.
