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The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued a stark warning that as many as 420,000 children could die in 2025 if urgent measures were not taken to address Nigeria’s worsening malnutrition crisis.
The Country Representative of UNICEF in Nigeria, Wafaa Elfadil Saeed Abdelatef, sounded the alarm during a visit to the organisation’s Maiduguri Field Office on Thursday.
According to Abdelatef, an estimated 15 million Nigerian children under five are malnourished, with 3.5 million at risk of severe acute malnutrition. Of that figure, nearly half a million children could lose their lives within the next year if resources are not mobilised.
“Forty percent of under-fives are stunted, children who will never reach their full physical or cognitive potential if we do not act now,” she said.
UNICEF stressed the urgent need for increased funding, local food production solutions, and expanded treatment centres to prevent avoidable child deaths from hunger and related complications.
The agency also highlighted the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s Northeast, where over 4.5 million people remain in dire need of assistance.
Beyond malnutrition, Abdelatef drew attention to Nigeria’s deepening education emergency, disclosing that 18.3 million children are currently out of school, 10.2 million at primary school age and 8.1 million at junior secondary level.
“This means nearly one in three Nigerian children is out of school. Every year, around 3.9 million children fail to complete primary education, while 4.2 million drop out before finishing junior secondary school. Only 27 percent of children aged 7 to 14 can read with comprehension, and 75 percent cannot solve simple mathematics,” she said.
Abdelatef further underscored the importance of school enrolment and retention, noting that education delays early marriage and empowers girls to make informed decisions about their health and future.
On child survival, UNICEF revealed that Nigeria accounts for the highest number of “zero-dose” children globally, with 2.1 million one-year-olds having never received a single vaccine. This leaves nearly one in three infants vulnerable to preventable but deadly diseases such as measles, diphtheria, meningitis, and poliovirus variants.
Abdelatef warned that unless swift and coordinated action is taken, Nigeria risks losing hundreds of thousands of children to hunger, preventable diseases, and systemic neglect.
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