In northeast Nigeria, conflict between the militant group Boko Haram and government forces has uprooted 2.4 million people from their homes. Nearly a quarter of a million children are acutely malnourished in Borno State: of these, an estimated 49,000 children will die if they do not receive treatment immediately.
Despite extremely challenging conditions and the ongoing threat of Boko Haram violence that prevents humanitarian agencies from reaching people in need an some parts of Borno State, we have scaled up our emergency programmes.
Our colleague Guy Calaf has captured our response in images.
Over the past few weeks, our expert emergency nutrition specialists have conducted rapid needs assessments and launched new programmes to deliver immediate, life-saving services to families who have been cut off from humanitarian aid for two years inMonguno in Borno State. We are meeting the urgent survival needs of families by providing safe water, emergency shelter, essential relief items, food, and emergency health and nutrition services to save the lives of vulnerable children. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
The week of August 21st, we distributed urgent relief items to 30,000 people in Monguno in north Borno State who were uprooted from their homes by conflict. We reached the most vulnerable displaced families with hygiene kits and emergency shelter. Action Against Hunger’s emergency team worked with local community leaders in Monguno to identify families in greatest need.
The week of August 29th, we distributed emergency food rations—including millet, beans, oil, salt and flour—to more than 15,000 displaced people in Monguno who were otherwise unable to meet their basic survival needs. Over the next few months, we will continue meeting the urgent food needs of families forced to flee their communities because of Boko Haram violence. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
Our mobile health clinics in Maiduguri and Monguno in Borno State are providing life-saving therapeutic treatment to acutely malnourished children as well as vital health care for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children under five years old. In the past 10 days, our health and nutrition teams have conducted 630 medical consultations. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
Ummi Mustafa is 22 months old: her mother brought her to Action Against Hunger’s mobile clinic in Monguno, where she was admitted for outpatient treatment for severe acute malnutrition. In Monguno, one of the “newly accessible areas” in Borno State where people have been cut off for two years from humanitarian assistance by the Boko Haram conflict, our rapid response teams admitted over 250 malnourished children for urgent, life-saving treatment in only 10 days. Such numbers indicate an extreme, critical nutrition emergency. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
Here, an acutely malnourished child in an informal camp for people displaced by Boko Haram violence receives treatment through one of Action Against Hunger’s mobile clinics outside Maiduguri. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
A health worker helps a mother perform an appetite test to assess whether her daughter requires intensive, inpatient therapeutic treatment for severe acute malnutrition in Maiduguri, Borno State. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
An estimated 244,000 children in Borno State are acutely malnourished. Data from our emergency nutrition assessments in Monguno, Kama and Kangara in Borno State indicates a horrifying prevalence of malnutrition that far exceeds emergency thresholds. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
People affected by the Boko Haram conflict in Borno State in northeast Nigeria need your help today. Please help us deliver lifelines to severely malnourished children and displaced families whose lives have been torn apart by crisis. © Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger
Images: Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger, Borno State, Nigeria, August 2016
Written by: Christine Kahmann for Action Against Junger, UK, September 2016