The fact that we have many Nigerian children in our nutritional programs in Niger and that we know that the northwest of Nigeria has traditionally been a place that sees high rates of child mortality led to us launching an exploratory mission in Katsina State in February 2021.

In the summer of 2021 MSF carried out a nutritional survey the state of Katsina that revealed alarmingly high levels of malnutrition (7.4% combined SAM (Z-S and MUAC), 26.1% GAM) in the area. The survey also revealed that the area had very poor levels of vaccination coverage (33.1% for measles and 26.1% for pentavalent), and very few options for people to access malnutrition treatment for their children.

Therefore we opened a nutritional program in the area in September 2021. We are working in collaboration with the Nigerian Ministry of Health to run a 62-bed inpatient therapeutic treatment centre (ITFC) in Katsina City, as well as five ambulatory therapeutic treatment centres (ATFCs): one in Katsina City and the other four in Jibia Local Government Area, close to the border with Niger.