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Farisa, who has relapsed into malnutrition, plays on a mat inside her house in Kware Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, Wednesday, July 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
SA\/AP Photo\/SA<\/p>\n
Halimah Muhammad, a local health worker, right, attends to a child suffering from malnutrition, as his mother Larai Malami, a 35-year-old mother of 10, holds him at the Rumbukawa Primary Health Centre in Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, Thursday, July 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
SA\/AP Photo\/SA<\/p>\n
Children suffering from acute malnutrition receive treatment via nasal feeding tubes at a hospital in Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, Thursday, July 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
SA\/AP Photo\/SA<\/p>\n
Maryam Aminu plays with her daughter Farisa, who has relapsed into malnutrition, at their house in Kware Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, Wednesday, July 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
SA\/AP Photo\/SA<\/p>\n
Shehu Aminu, second left, who lost his job as a taxi driver due to a spike in the retail price of petrol in February, sits with his wife Maryam Aminu, their daughter Farisa, left, who has relapsed into malnutrition, and her siblings, at their house in Kware Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, Wednesday, July 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
SA\/AP Photo\/SA<\/p>\n
SOKOTO, Nigeria (AP) \u2014 Maryam Aminu was hardly surprised when the last of her six children was diagnosed with malnutrition in April for a second time. She was barely feeding the 18-month-old regularly, let alone with nutritious foods.<\/p>\n
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Although the family in northwest Nigeria has struggled with economic hardship, their situation deteriorated after February, when her husband, Shehu Aminu, lost his job as a taxi driver due to a spike in the retail price of petrol caused by the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she was diagnosed the second time, even though I suspected it, I was sad and angry because I knew why,\u201d Aminu said in the living area of their unvarnished two-bedroom house in the quiet town of Kware, Sokoto, as ash from the coal stove billowed into the room. \u201cTimes are tough, and the food is not consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Children relapsing into malnutrition has become an increasingly common occurrence in the state and across northern Nigeria, according to local health and aid workers, who cite knock-on effects from the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Northern Nigeria, one of the world\u2019s poorest regions, is already under pressure from an insurgency crisis. Now, the conflict in the Middle East has worsened food security for millions of people living in poverty, especially children.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu\u2019s vast economic reforms sparked high inflation after fuel subsidies were removed three years ago and the currency was devalued. A World Bank technical report this week stated that 139 million Nigerians are now poor or vulnerable to poverty.<\/p>\n
If the war in the Middle East continues, up to 23.4 million additional children could fall into monetary poverty \u2014 meaning a lack of income or consumption \u2014 by the end of the year, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said in a report this week. It warned that at least 80% would be in Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren are paying the price for the escalating conflict in the Middle East, including children far beyond the region,\u201d said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. \u201cThe longer this continues, the worse the consequences will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dangers ahead for children<\/p>\n
Amid the Iran war, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas passed before the war \u2014 sent a ripple effect across the world. A worldwide fuel shock drove up the prices of everything from gas and groceries to fertilizer and airline tickets.<\/p>\n
In Nigeria, fuel pump prices jumped from 800 naira ($0.58) per liter in February to 1,400 naira ($1.02) in April, with a knock-on effect on the prices of food and necessities.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump has been trying to force Iran to fully reopen the route for months, turning to everything from airstrikes and naval blockades to negotiations and threats.<\/p>\n
In Sokoto, where the soaring prices have brought more hardship for families, health workers told The Associated Press that they’ve been seeing more children returned to health facilities this year after falling back into malnutrition.<\/p>\n
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At a hospital in Sokoto, records shared with AP show nearly 40 children previously treated for malnutrition since February are currently under treatment again, in addition to those not documented.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am worried and sometimes angry about the increasing numbers we are seeing,\u201d said health worker Halimah Muhammad.<\/p>\n
Beyond current realities, soaring prices and economic hardship mean that children in poor households are more likely to be stunted in the long term, UNICEF’s Russell said in an interview with the AP as she was visiting Sokoto this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir development will be compromised. They are less likely to stay in school because their parents are under so much financial stress. So the long-term implications for children are absolutely terrible,\u201d said Russell.<\/p>\n
The war has also affected fertilizer supplies and prices, threatening the planting season and worsening the fate of mostly farming communities in northern Nigeria who have struggled to access their farmlands amid a deadly conflict with armed groups.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI wake up every morning unhappy, seeing I can no longer provide for my family,\u201d said Shehu, Maryam’s husband. \u201cThen, 2,000 naira could buy you a nutritious meal for the whole family. Now, you need 5,000 naira to buy what 2,000 naira would buy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of their meals are pap, a kind of corn pudding, and rice. \u201cThere is no way to feed the children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018I wish she were excited and full of life\u2019<\/p>\n
People in northwest Nigeria are caught between regular attacks by bandit groups who specialize in kidnapping for ransom and Islamist militants who have been expanding their territory. The Iran war, analysts say, compounds the impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis distant war offers no relief for the north\u2019s vulnerable,\u201d Ikemesit Effiong, a partner at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based geopolitical risk advisory, said.<\/p>\n
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Larai Malami, a 35-year-old mother of 10, gave birth to her last child in December, but the infant has already been diagnosed with malnutrition twice.<\/p>\n
Her family has been struggling after her husband lost his job as a motorcycle rider and crossed the border into neighboring Niger to look for work.<\/p>\n
Malami worries about the fuel price because it keeps the price of food high and her husband away. \u201cI worry that the child might never be fully well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That is a sentiment shared by Aminu, too. \u201cI wish she were excited and full of life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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For more on Africa and development: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa-pulse<\/a>\n<\/p>\n The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farisa, who has relapsed into malnutrition, plays on a mat inside her house in Kware Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[2800,82859,750,176,1664,122,163603,4356,9475,9473,9474,87509,74848],"class_list":["post-338357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nigeria","tag-bola-tinubu","tag-catherine-russell","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-nigeria","tag-nigeria-strait-hormuz-iran-war-poverty-malnutrition","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-32503-ap-online-africa-news","tag-product-32538-ap-online-health-and-medical-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116947397373736929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}