Lives on hold
Malnutrition and protection crises rise in northeast Nigeria as humanitarian support nosedives. In response, UNICEF is piloting new mechanisms to increase individual and domestic funding.
The brown box is sitting on a pile of abandoned books behind the clinic's laundry room door. The room was previously used to keep medical records for malnourished children, but it has recently been repurposed for laundry activities.
Inside, there are clear plastic containers containing food grains from various nutrient classes. Lifting up the containers, each untouched by medical staff for months, Fati Babagana, Officer-in-Charge of the 1000 Housing Estate Primary Healthcare Clinic in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, explains what happened to the once-loved box.
“This one contains millet,” she says, peering at the content for a second before setting it down. She picked another container. "This other one with a peach cover contains ground crayfish. We also have containers for groundnuts and dry fish, both of which are sources of protein. We used to display them in the corridor during food demonstrations for mothers. "We stopped displaying the food items in the corridor since March" she said.
An empty OTP Space
The medical record office is not the only space repurposed at the clinic. The outpatient therapeutic program (OTP) centre, which was once bustling with children and caregivers, has been deserted. These days, the space is mostly empty and free for any purpose.
“The last OTP session we had was in March 2025. We were supported by Save the Children before the funding cut from USAID. We had to stop work immediately after the funding cut,’’ she says.
The 1000 Housing Estate Primary Healthcare Centre clinic, a large facility on the outskirts of Maiduguri, serves eight communities in the Konduga and Jere local government areas. For many years, it has been the sole facility providing free health and nutrition support to women and children in these communities.
For vulnerable women and children affected by protracted conflict and loss of economic livelihood, it is a one-stop centre for overall wellbeing, including family planning, antenatal, labour, and postnatal care, as well as acute malnutrition treatment and immunisation services for children.
Unlike most primary healthcare centres, the clinic operates both a stabilisation centre and an OTP to save mothers' transportation costs to the city centre.
"The stabilisation centre is still running. Our beds are filled now because the children are returning with serious complications. Before, we admitted between 50 and 60 children weekly. Now we admit over 70 children weekly. We used to discharge them to our in-house OTP, where they continued their treatment and were closely monitored.With the funding cut, however, we have to discharge the children to continue their treatment in OTPs elsewhere.
But there are no OTPs close to them other than this clinic. We all know that the mothers will not continue the treatment because of the distance between other OTPs. Currently, we are facing serious complications, such as measles, in children who were previously discharged. It is sad that we can no longer monitor the children, and they are returning with serious complications"
Like 1000, like 700
About 20 kilometres from the 1000 Housing Estate Primary Healthcare Centre, another OTP managed by Save the Children stands under lock and key inside the premises of 700 Housing Estate Primary Healthcare Centre.
Painted in brilliant white, the facility is on the verge of decay, with clogs of cobwebs and ferocious moths building sand kingdoms all over its surface. One side of the roof has commenced a downward descent, perhaps mirroring the fate of the children the clinic once served.
But Maiduguri is not the only centre where bustling OTPs now stand desolate. As far back as May 2025, OTPs managed by Action Against Hunger in Monguno, a garrison town in Borno State, have been shut down and services shuttered.
WFP shut down 150 nutrition clinics in Borno and Yobe.
The impact has not spared UN agencies. The fallout from the USAID funding cut led to widespread staff retrenchment and a reduction in humanitarian operations for many UN agencies, as well as for international and national non-governmental organisations.
In late July, the World Food Programme (WFP) ended emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people affected by conflict in northeast Nigeria.
Over 150 nutrition clinics providing food aid to some of the most vulnerable children were shut, directly affecting 300,000 children under two.
“Nearly 31 million people in Nigeria are now facing acute hunger, a record number,” said David Stevenson, WFP Country Director for Nigeria, in a statement.
“At the same time, WFP’s operations in northeast Nigeria will collapse without immediate, sustained funding. This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis, it’s a growing threat to regional stability, as families pushed beyond their limits are left with nowhere to turn.”
According to WFP, the last nutrition and food stock have already left warehouses, and the most vulnerable children will be exposed to wasting and death.
As existing projects bridge the gap, UNICEF pilots new funding models.
As funding cuts take a toll on lifesaving services for children, UNICEF has piloted the I AM funding campaign, which is aimed at raising funds from individuals and foundations to support the most vulnerable children around the world.
In addition, the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF), a global mechanism to increase domestic funding from government, is helping children affected by acute malnutrition to access lifesaving fortified peanuts, popularly called the ready-to-eat therapeutic food (RUTF), which are proven to turn the tide against impending deaths for malnourished children.
In northeast Nigeria, the CNF is gradually attracting counterpart funding from the governments of Borno and Yobe states to ensure that severely malnourished children can continue accessing RUTF and prevent stockouts.
The government recently procured over 2,000 cartons of RUTF through the CNF mechanism. Similar to this, the Yobe State Government has authorised N165 million for the purchase of RUTF through the CNF agreement.
Through the Multisectoral Integrated Nutrition Action for Children and Adolescents (MINA) project funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the German Government-funded (BMZ) Resilience and Peace (Social Cohesion) Project and other donors, UNICEF has continued to stay and deliver for children affected by conflict and malnutrition in northeast Nigeria.
Of the nearly 200,000 children treated for acute malnutrition between January and June 2025, over 120,000 of them (64 per cent) were treated in MINA-supported facilities in Borno and Yobe States.
A USD$160 million gap still exists.
From January to June 2025, UNICEF managed to reach over 1.3 million with health services and treated 340,000 children for severe malnutrition through multisectoral interventions in northeast Nigeria. UNICEF also managed to provide safe water for 185,000 people and enrolled 500,000 displaced children in education within the period.
But gaps remain, as disease outbreaks, climate change, and attacks by non-state armed groups continue to fuel food insecurity and child malnutrition. Humanitarian needs continue to gallop, constantly overwhelming available RUTF stocks and other commodities needed to support children.
Over 400,000 children are at risk due to imminent nutrition stockouts. An additional 4.9 million children lack access to essential services caused by displacement, disease outbreaks and floods in northeast and northwest Nigeria.
Of the US$255 million needed for humanitarian operations in 2025, UNICEF received US$95 million, leaving a US$160 million gap (67%) and critical shortfalls across sectors.
“From sanitation to nutrition, the needs are still huge. I was recently in Ngala, where mothers are in dire need of malnutrition support for their children. We are appealing to donors to step in and support vulnerable populations in northeast Nigeria. UNICEF will continue to speak for children and advocate that their basic needs are met so that they can fulfil their potential,’’ says Francis Butichi, UNICEF Chief of Maiduguri Field Office in northeast Nigeria.
The reinstatement of the OTP at the 1000 Housing Estate Primary Healthcare Clinic in Babagana will significantly address the growing number of children suffering from acute malnutrition.
“It will be a victory for children if the OTP returns. It will mean that we will have fewer children returning with serious complications. Our operations will return to normal, and children’s lives will be saved,’’ she says.
