Behind the treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition in northern Nigeria is a growing mental health burden on caregivers who spend weeks at hospital bedsides, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said. At MSF’s Nilefa Kiji nutrition facility in Maiduguri, Borno State, children are treated for severe wasting as well as measles, diphtheria and malaria.
Treatment lasts one week to a month, during which parents, mostly mothers, stay in the ward, separated from other children at home and uncertain about their families’ welfare.MSF counselors say anxiety, grief and exhaustion are common but rarely captured in statistics.
According to the report by MSF, Fatima Ibrahim, whose 23-month-old daughter Aisha was admitted after meningitis, spent three weeks at the facility. “I am worried about my children. There is no one to take care of my children. Their father is away and they do not have anything to eat or drink,” she said, adding she could not eat after learning one child had fever and no money for treatment.
Other caregivers described similar strain. Halima Mohammed spent 45 days moving between hospitals with two sick children and said she now barely sleeps. Latifat Abdulkareem said her eldest son called to say “they were hungry since I wasn’t around.”MSF counselor educator Kethurah John said the pressure at home forces difficult decisions. She cited a mother of six who left treatment early after her husband said he could no longer care for the children. “She had to leave, not because she wanted to, but because she feels this is just one child. And every day when she is given food, she cries because she is thinking of her children,” John said.
There are also signs of progress. Mariya Mukhtar, who arrived at an MSF facility in Kano with a severely ill daughter, said the child improved significantly within nine days and can now sit, play and talk. “I am in no rush to leave,” she said.
To address the strain, MSF has integrated psychosocial support into its malnutrition program at Nilefa Kiji. Caregivers receive psychological first aid, individual counseling and group sessions, while children join structured play. Counselors also help caregivers contact relatives by phone and arrange supervised home visits.MSF supports state Ministries of Health in Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Borno, Bauchi, Sokoto and Kano.
In 2025, MSF teams treated 425,634 children for acute malnutrition across northern Nigeria, a 41.8% increase from 2024.The organization said caring for caregivers is key to recovery. “Healing is not only about restoring a child’s weight. It is also about restoring hope and resilience to the person who sits at the bedside every day,” MSF stated.
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