Poor food consumption patterns in terms of diversity, high prevalence of child morbidities (fever/malaria, diarrhea), poor health seeking behavior and poor hygiene practices are contributing to the acute malnutrition of nearly 4.4 million children aged 0 - 59 months in northwest and northeast Nigeria in the period of May 2023 - April 2024. This includes 1.04 million cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and 3.37 million cases of Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). In addition, nearly 600,000 pregnant or lactating women are acutely malnourished and will likely continue to be malnourished and are in need of treatment.

In the current period of May - September 2023, more than half of the 133 Local Government Areas (LGAs) included in the analysis are in IPC Acute Malnutrition (AMN) Phase 3 and above. Of the 62 LGAs analysed in northeast Nigeria, 14 were classified in IPC AMN Phase 3 (Serious) 27 in IPC AMN Phase 2 (Alert) and 21 in IPC AMN Phase 1 (Acceptable). In northwest Nigeria, there were 71 LGAs with sufficient data. Of those 71 LGAs, 12 were classified in IPC AMN Phase 4 (Critical), 46 in Phase 3 and 13 in Phase 2.

Acute malnutrition levels are expected to remain the same in the first projected period of October to December 2023. In the second projection period of January to April 2024, the situation is projected to worsen slightly in the northeast region. Conversely, a slight improvement is expected in the northwest region.

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