By Abass Latifat
United Nations children fund (UNICEF) on 26th of September said about 2.5m children under the age of five in Nigeria are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF’s nutrition specialist, Mrs Abigail Nyukuri, stated this at a two-day media dialogue on integrated and timely response to nutrition- related humanitarian needs, organised in Maiduguri Borno state capital.
According to her, an estimated 440,000 boys and girls under age five in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States are affected by the disease in 2019. She revealed that the prevalence rates of severe acute malnutrition the three North Eastern States are Eleven, six and thirteen percents respectively, blamed protracted access to constraints and insecurity in the religion for the worsening situation.
Hence, efforts have been made by the government in the provision of policies and structures to manage malnutrition in the country through various programs to support nutrition, like exclusive breast feeding, complementary feeding for six months, even the home Grown school feeding programs etc which are all aimed at eliminating poor feeding practice for children.
