Climate Change and Insecurity Compound Zimbabwe and Nigeria’s Malnutrition Crisis
Cynthia Tafara Nyahora and Promise Eze (Lead Writers)
Pamela Arikureti’s grandchild, who is nearly two years old, has been severely affected by the widespread malnutrition in Mudzi, Zimbabwe. The young girl has not gained any weight for the past six months, “We give her plain maize porridge every morning because that’s what we can afford,” Pamela explained.
In Zimbabwe, a severe drought worsened by the El Niño phenomenon has triggered a malnutrition crisis threatening the health and livelihoods of vulnerable communities across the country.
With staple crop yields plummeting and food prices skyrocketing, families like Pamela’s are facing dire food shortages, leading to increased rates of stunting and wasting among children. “Most days, we eat Sadza [a maize meal] and okra for lunch and the same meal for dinner. It has been a difficult year for us due to the drought as we did not harvest anything. At times, we have to sleep on our empty stomachs,” she adds.
The situation is no better in Nigeria, particularly in the northern region, where ongoing conflict and insecurity have worsened the crisis. Armed violence has displaced countless families, cutting off their access to farmland. Coupled with rising inflation and soaring food prices, many Nigerians are struggling with hunger.
As humanitarian organisations scramble to provide relief, the long-term consequences of this nutritional emergency could hinder the recovery and development of Nigeria and Zimbabwe’s for years to come. This highlights the urgent need for immediate assistance and sustainable agricultural practices to combat the effects of climate change.
In Nigeria and Zimbabwe, children pay the price
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2 million children in Nigeria are suffering from malnutrition. The organisation also reported that the country has the second-highest burden of stunted children globally, with a national prevalence rate of 32% among children under five.
In Zimbabwe, 24% of children aged 0 to 5 suffer are stunted, with boys more likely to be affected than girls. The UNICEF further reported that just 10% of children (6–23 months) receive an acceptable diet, and the children in the poorest homes are twice as likely to be stunted.
El Niño’s impact in Zimbabwe
El Niño is a complex climate phenomenon characterised by the periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the Central and Eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. This warming disrupts normal weather patterns, leading to significant global climatic effects. Typically occurring every few years, El Niño can influence weather events such as increased rainfall and flooding in some regions, while causing droughts and higher temperatures in others.
According to the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) Network, dry and very hot conditions have limited planting activities across much of the country following cumulatively low rainfall. This has resulted in a decline in market maize grain availability as more households increase their dependence on market purchases.
The 2024 Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment report (ZIMLaC) further indicates a decline in access to a minimum acceptable diet in the majority of Zimbabwe’s provinces. Women like Pamela are now forced to stretch their meagre resources to feed their families.
“In the past, we were able to support ourselves through subsistence farming during periods of exceptionally heavy rainfall. We used to feed our kids well-balanced meals, but that is no longer the case because we don’t harvest anything from our fields anymore,” she said.
Tatenda Chimutu, a nutritionist, said malnutrition rates in Mudzi have also increased due to inadequate funds for scaling up nutrition interventions. “The situation has worsened, food insecurity increased from 31% in 2023 to 64% in 2024. Wasting has also increased compared to last year,” he explained.
Tatenda reported that the community response to this crisis has been through local health centres, which provide nutrition counselling, community-based nutrition programmes. Traditional leaders have been advocating for nutrition education,while self-help groups promote kitchen gardening. In addition, partnerships with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have provided food aid and support.
However, for first-time mothers like 22-year-old Dorothy Ngaufe, the food aid from NGOs has only provided a temporary solution to her nutrition challenges. “The only assistance we received was in the form of groceries consisting of peanut butter, cooking oil, Kapenta, and beans once per month for three months. This was specifically meant for my 2-year-old daughter, but this has since been stopped,” she explained. “As of now we have nothing, my daughter is facing severe malnutrition as we hardly have anything to eat. My daughter only weighs eight kilograms.” According to the World Health Organisation (WHO),the average weight for a 2-year-old girl is 12 kilograms.
Conflict and banditry worsen malnutrition in Nigeria
The rise of banditry in northwest Nigeria has led to frequent kidnapping for ransoms and attacks on villages and schools. Once a peaceful farming community, Tungar Adaka, a village in Zamfara, has become a target, forcing residents like Zainab Shafi’u, 37, to flee.
For over a decade, banditry has claimed over 8,000 lives in the northwest, and over 1 million people had been displaced. The number keeps rising. According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), at least 10,000 people were displaced in Zamfara and Sokoto states due to armed attacks between March and April 2024.
Zainab’s three-year-old son was diagnosed with malnutrition in June 2024 due to the lack of basic living items in displacement camps. “I noticed he began to look pale, suffered from diarrhea, lost weight, and became weaker,” Zainab said. “Bandits have taken control of the villages. No one can farm, so there’s very little food for my son. My husband hasn’t farmed for three years and [does not] earn enough from mining to keep us [well fed].”
To treat her son, Zainab took him to a primary healthcare center, where he was given ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF). While her son has shown improvement, Zainab remains deeply worried without a steady food supply.
A call for urgent intervention
Current food systems in both countries don’t seem to address the problem of child malnutrition comprehensively. “We need the government to support us with food and shelter,” Zainab urged, echoing a similar call from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
In September 2024, MSF urged for increased efforts to address the escalating malnutrition crisis in Northwest Nigeria. MSF reported a sharp rise in severely malnourished children with life-threatening complications. It is worried that even though one in four children are malnourished, the region remains excluded from the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan.
However, Damba Rabiu, a doctor at a clinic in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara, noted that ignorance and poverty exacerbate the crisis. He explained that some mothers, after receiving nutritional supplements, sell part of them to meet other pressing needs.
“Some parents are short-changing their children. If a child is supposed to receive two sachets of nutritional supplements per day for seven days, that adds up to 14 sachets. However, some children only receive two sachets for the entire week, as parents sell the rest or use them for other family members. As a result, the child doesn’t get the nutrition required for recovery,” Dr. Rabiu said.
But this is largely due to circumstance rather than negligence on the part of parent. For example, the price of cooking a pot of Jollof Rice, a Nigerian staple food, went up from about ₦16,000 in March 2024 to over ₦20,000 in June 2024. This means families are now spending almost 20% more on the same meal in just a few months. In desperate situations where multiple children are malnourished in a household, mothers are forced to make the decision to find food for the entire household.
Joy Alejo, a pediatric neurologist at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, noted that “when children don’t get enough food for proper brain development, you’re limiting their potential for inventions, innovations, and achievements. The government needs to address this urgently.
“While the brain continues to develop after age five, the early years are crucial for laying the foundation for future growth.” Alejo also shares concerns about the insecurity, stating that it has driven doctors away from the region, limiting the care available to malnourished children.
Ending malnutrition
Tatenda, the nutritionist in Zimbabwe, explained ways to end malnutrition, including short- and long-term solutions. “Food assistance programmes,” is one he said, including “emergency nutrition intervention programmes, nutrition and healthcare service outreaches.”
For the long-term, he added that people need to practice sustainable agriculture initiatives and there is a need for economic empowerment programmes that can benefit people. On a policy level, “there is a need for policy changes supporting nutrition and food security,” he said.
Dr. Ibrahim Baba Shatambaya, a political scientist and public policy expert in Nigeria, noted that insecurity is something every serious government should do everything to tackle, especially in rural areas, to guarantee food security.
He also emphasised that, “to tackle malnutrition effectively, there must be a strong partnership between the government and international organisations. This collaboration should focus on mapping areas where malnourished children are located, identifying the affected individuals, and implementing targeted interventions. These efforts will ensure a direct response to their needs and work toward preventing malnutrition in the future.”
