The UN says that a quarter of the world’s children under the age of 5 suffer from severe food poverty. Many are in Africa

Aisha Aliyu, 36, a mother of five, who spoke about how her last child “was thin but is getting fatter,” shows her farm in Kaltungo Poshereng, Nigeria, Sunday, June 2, 2024. More than a dozen women gathered this week in the Poshereng village of Kaltungo, where they are learning at least 200 recipes that they can prepare with local foods that, in the absence of rain, are grown in bags filled with sand and require small amounts of water. The training session reflected the struggles of families facing greater challenges amid Nigeria’s worst cost of living crisis. (AP Photo/Domingo Alamba)

KALTUNGO, Nigeria (AP) — The 9-month-old twins cried incessantly and pulled their mother, seeking attention but also food. They had received little in the last 24 hours and there were signs of a deeper hunger in their heads, too big for their tiny bodies.

“Not much milk comes out,” said 38-year-old mother Dorcas Simon, who struggles to breastfeed and has three other children. She laughed, as if she wanted to hide the pain. “What will I give them when I have no food myself?”

Here in northern Nigeria, where conflict and climate change have long contributed to the problem, their twins are among the 181 million children under the age of 5 – or 27% of the world’s youngest children – living in extreme poverty. of severe food poverty, according to a new report released Thursday by the UN children’s agency.

The report, which focused on nearly 100 low- and middle-income countries, defines severe food poverty as not consuming anything in a day or, at best, two of the eight food groups the agency recognizes.

Africa’s population, of more than 1.3 billion people, is one of the most affected, mainly due to conflicts, climate crises and rising food prices. The continent is responsible for a third of the global burden and 13 of the 20 most affected countries.

But it also made some progress, the report states.

The percentage of children living in severe food poverty in West and Central Africa has fallen from 42% to 32% over the past decade, he said, noting advances that include diverse cultures and performance-based incentives for health workers.

In the absence of vital nutrients, children living on “extremely poor” diets are more likely to suffer from acute malnutrition, a potentially fatal form of malnutrition, the agency known as UNICEF said.

“When wasting becomes very severe, you are 12 times more likely to die,” Harriet Torlesse, one of the report’s authors, told the Associated Press.

In several Nigerian communities, such as Kaltungo in the northeast, where Simon lives, UNICEF is training thousands of women on how to increase their families’ nutrient intake with cassava, sweet potatoes, maize and millet grown in home gardens.

More than a dozen women gathered this week in the village of Poshereng, in Kaltungo, to learn dozens of recipes that they can prepare with those foods that, in the absence of rain, are grown in bags filled with sand and that require little water.

Mothers in Nigeria also face the country’s worst cost of living crisis. Growing food at home saves money.

Aisha Aliyu, 36, a mother of five, said her last child “was thin but is gaining weight” because of what they now grow at home. Hauwa Bwami, a 50-year-old mother of five, almost lost her grandson to kwashiorkor, a disease associated with severe protein malnutrition, before UNICEF began forming a year ago. Now she grows enough food to sell to other women.

Kaltungo is located in a semi-arid agricultural region where climate change has limited rainfall in recent years. Some children have died from acute malnutrition in the past because food was scarce, said Ladi Abdullahi, who trains the women.

The training “is like answered prayers for me,” Simon said of his first time with the group.

But it can be a painful lesson. Another intern, Florence Victor, 59, watched helplessly as her nine-month-old grandson succumbed to malnutrition in 2022.

Malnutrition can also weaken the immune system over time, leaving children vulnerable to diseases that can kill.

In the Sahel, the semi-arid region south of the Sahara desert that is a hot spot for violent extremism, there has been a rise in acute malnutrition – worse than severe food poverty – that has reached emergency levels, said Alfred Ejem, an advisor food safety senior. with the Mercy Corps aid group in Africa.

Due to displacement and climate change, families have resorted to “poor coping mechanisms such as eating leaves and locusts just to survive,” Ejem said.

In conflict-hit Sudan, large numbers of children die from severe malnutrition.

In Nigeria’s troubled northwest, French medical organization Doctors Without Borders said at least 850 children died last year within 24 to 48 hours of being admitted to its health facilities.

“We are resorting to treating patients on mattresses on the floor because our facilities are full,” said Simba Tirima, MSF representative in Nigeria, on Tuesday.

Many malnourished children in the region never reach a hospital because they live in remote areas or because their families cannot afford care.

Inequality also plays a role in severe food poverty among children in Africa, the new report says. In South Africa, the most unequal country in the world, around one in four children is affected by severe food poverty, despite being the most developed nation on the continent.

Governments and partners must act urgently, said author Torlesse: “The work starts now.”

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