49,000 kids dying of malnutrition linked to Nigeria’s Boko Haram: UN

Most of the children are in areas that had been inaccessible before a multinational force liberated them from Boko Haram extremists earlier this year.

Some 49,000 children will die of malnutrition in areas once cut off by northeastern Nigeria’s Islamic extremist uprising if they don’t get treatment, the UN children’s agency warned on Tuesday.

This photo taken on June 30, 2016 shows a young boy suffering from severe acute malnutrition lying on the ground at one of the Unicef nutrition clinics, in the Muna informal settlement, which houses nearly 16,000 IDPs (internally displaced people) in the outskirts of Maiduguri capital of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. (AFP file photo)

Unicef called on charities and donors to respond quickly to avert a tragedy in Borno state, where nearly a quarter of a million children are severely malnourished.

Most of the children are in areas that had been inaccessible before a multinational force liberated them from Boko Haram extremists earlier this year.

“Some 134 children on average will die every day from causes linked to acute malnutrition if the response is not scaled up quickly,” the agency’s regional director, Manuel Fontaine said.

A woman measures the diameter of a girl's arm suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the Muna informal settlement in the outskirts of Maiduguri capital of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria.

Children already are dying. Doctors Without Borders has warned of a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency” unfolding in the city of Bama, where it said 200 people had died in June and where refugees spoke of children dying of hunger every day.

Unicef said the agency has received less than half of the $55.5 million it appealed for earlier this year, and now the needs are even greater.