For context, the war has gone on actively for close to two years.

Tragic and painful as this figure is, it is utterly dwarfed by a chilling statistic from Nigeria: over 652 children have died from malnutrition in Katsina State alone, and that’s just in the first half of 2025.

This jarring incongruity provokes a bleak and sobering question: How can a nation not technically in war end up outpacing a war zone in deaths due to hunger and malnutrition?

The answer lies at the intersection of poor governance, chronic insecurity, and systemic neglect.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and one of its largest economies, is officially at peace. It enjoys a democratic government, a huge bureaucracy, and vast natural and human resources. Yet it continues to record child mortality from malnutrition that rivals or surpasses that in active war zones.

The latest report from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Katsina is most alarming. Katsina, located in Nigeria’s northwest, is a besieged state by banditry, kidnappings, and deepening insecurity.

In Katsina, whole villages have been turned into ghost towns and farmlands into killing fields. As a result, food production has dwindled, healthcare systems have broken down, and families have been forced into displacement, poverty, and starvation.

The root of the crisis points to both structural and systemic failures. Malnutrition, especially in children, is both a symptom and a signal. It indicates a broader failure of the health system, food distribution channels, social protection programs, and ultimately, government accountability.

The key issues driving the malnutrition crisis in Nigeria are numerous. First, armed violence, especially in northern Nigeria, has led to mass displacements. Families fleeing for their lives leave behind farms and other means of livelihood.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps are often overcrowded, underfunded, and inadequately supplied with food and clean water. Children under five, the most vulnerable, suffer the most.

Secondly, in many parts of northern Nigeria, healthcare delivery is either non-existent or dangerously underfunded. Malnutrition requires urgent and specialised treatment, something scarce even in urban centres, let alone rural communities ravaged by conflict.

Then there is the issue of cuts in international funding. MSF attributed part of the problem in Katsina to funding cuts by international donors.

As global attention shifts to other emergencies, including Ukraine, Sudan, and Palestine, humanitarian support to Nigeria has dwindled. But this raises a painful point: Why is the Nigerian government not stepping in to fill the void?

Another challenge is the failure of preventive nutrition programs. Nigeria has repeatedly failed to sustain preventive nutrition programs that address child hunger and undernutrition before they become life-threatening.

School feeding programs are poorly implemented or discontinued in many states, and outreach on infant nutrition and breastfeeding is inconsistent at best.

Plus, malnutrition doesn’t make headlines like terrorism or economic policy. As a result, the issue often slips under the radar of national priorities.

There’s a lack of real-time data, poor coordination among ministries, and a bureaucratic unwillingness to act until disaster strikes.

The effects of runaway malnutrition deaths are long-term and deeply unsettling. Think human capital loss, undermined development goals and national and international shame. It’s a ticking time bomb.

I concede that there is no magic bullet. Yet, I’ll argue that the path to the solution requires urgent, coordinated, and sustained action. In my mind, the way forward is to move from rhetoric to action. Here’s what must happen now:

Malnourishment must be officially declared a national emergency. The state and federal governments need to increase nutrition-sensitive interventions and allocate ring-fenced funds to food relief, health centres, and child care.

In addition, primary health centres need to be able to detect, treat, and manage malnourishment cases. Trained workers, therapeutic diets availability, and a functional cold chain need to be the standard, not a luxury.

Besides, the government must secure farming villages, especially in the North, and invest in agriculture. Farmers need to be protected, provided with equipment, and incentivised to plant crops. Food insecurity is the first domino that must fall in the malnutrition chain.

Moreover, Nigeria must regain confidence with international donors as well as develop homegrown solutions. Partnerships with NGOs, faith-based organisations, and community leaders can be used to increase reach and amplify impact.

Furthermore, the Nigerian public must demand transparency and accountability. Children dying from hunger are not just statistics; they are indictments of leadership failure. Civil society must amplify its stories and push for reforms.

It is unacceptable that Nigeria, a country with so much potential, is losing more children to malnutrition than countries at war. We all should ask ourselves this question: What is peace worth if children are starving and dying?

The time for silence has passed. Nigeria must act now to stop the silent war of hunger that is killing its future. History will not be kind to us otherwise.

*Elvis Eromosele, a corporate communications professional and sustainability advocate, wrote via elviseroms@gmail.com. 

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The investment is done alongside the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction, EBRD and British International Investment, BII, securing a major contribution to safeguarding jobs and building resilience in the Ukrainian food- and agri-sectors during the ongoing war.

MHP employs more than 30,000 people in Ukraine, more than 40 percent of them being women. Because of the war, access to international capital markets is limited in Ukraine, even for financially sound companies.

By supporting MHP, an important part of Ukraine’s food industry, and its continued operations, Swedfund, EBRD and BII contribute to Ukraine’s economic resilience and safeguarding much needed local employment- as well as export opportunities.

“The consequences of the war in Ukraine are multi-facetted and by this investment we can maintain employment opportunities, not least for women and veterans, create new jobs, generate tax incomes and export revenues, support local value creation and more sustainable business practices.

This is important to support Ukraine’s economic resilience, says Maria Håkansson, CEO of Swedfund.

The investment is part of a EUR 100 million financing package arranged by EBRD, that has a longstanding relation with MHP. The package includes EUR 40 million from the EBRD, EUR 20 million from Swedfund and EUR 30 million from BII. Swedfund’s share of the loan will be used for production efficiency investments such as equipment for sunflower processing and upgrades of agricultural machinery.

In its capital injection to Swedfund for 2025 the Swedish Government earmarked SEK 500 million for investments in Ukraine. Food systems is one of Swedfund’s prioritised sectors to invest in.

“The investment in MHP is a strategic fit that ticks several boxes for Swedfund. Most importantly it can make an important difference during difficult times. We look forward to under the leadership of EBRD advance the company’s sustainability agenda. We will continue looking for both investment opportunities and public sector projects to support the economic development and reconstruction of Ukraine, says Olena Smyrnova, director and head of Ukraine, Swedfund.

Ann Weru, UN OCHA Nigeria’s head of Public Information, and Dr. Chike Walter Duru, public information officer,  were there.

Excerpts:

What are the major humanitarian issues in Nigeria, according to the UN?

Mohamed Malick Fall: Different types of crises exist in Nigeria; some are linked to conflict and insecurity; there are those that are triggered by insurgency in the north-east, some are linked to intercommunal violence, herders/farmers clashes, abductions, kidnapping, banditry, prevalent in many parts of the country.

In addition, Nigeria has a certain level of climate vulnerability. Sometimes, drought; sometimes, floods; sometimes heat wave, that impact the wellbeing of people and sometimes trigger the movement of people, loss of property or loss of livelihood and they exacerbate the hardship that the people are facing.

How is the UN responding to the challenges?

Mohamed Malick Fall: The UN has a two-fold response. One is the humanitarian response, which, to me, is guided by the principle of saving lives and reducing vulnerabilities; helping people, not only to get back on their feet, but also to have hope that they can have a better future.

The second component is the one that tackles the root causes of these crises. Most of those root causes are linked to deficits of development, lack of basic services, lack of livelihoods, lack of skills for young people and lack of access to employment. Those require much deeper action, which is building, not only on UN humanitarian intervention, but also on development-related activities, which will be looking at short, mid and long-term projects for the development of those people.

What are the Obstacles to humanitarian interventions in Nigeria?

Mohamed Malick Fall: We have several of them. The biggest one is access, and sometimes, access is hampered by insecurity. There are many parts of the country without free and safe access because of the high level of insecurity that is still prevailing.

This is valid for the north-east, where, despite all the efforts to push against the insurgency, you still see attacks like the recent ones in Konduga and Gwoza, which are sad reminders that it is not yet over. You have also insecurity prevailing in many other parts of the country.

Sometimes, access to the people in need is also difficult.

Funding gaps are also an issue, because, as you know, the world is overstretched by humanitarian challenges.

For instance, we have gone past half of the year, but this year’s Nigerian Humanitarian Response Plan is funded below 50 per cent.

We launched in May 2024, a Lean Season Plan, which targeted to address the most urgent needs of people affected by food insecurity and malnutrition, but we are in the peak of the lean season, and we have not even reached 30 per cent of the funding we need. If you look at humanitarian funding year by year, you will see that it is declining.

The level of response from the donor community is getting lower because of the competing developments across the world. The wars in Gaza, Sudan, and other regions have completely changed the funding landscape for humanitarian response.

How about the challenge of funding?

Mohamed Malick Fall: There is a cost of doing nothing. People always look at things from the point of the cost of doing something. Let me take one example. In the Lean Season Plan, we are looking at addressing severe food insecurity and malnutrition. Today, look at the number of children that are malnourished. The survival of hundreds of thousands of severely acutely malnourished children and those at risk depends on urgent interventions.

In the Lean Season Plan, there is a projection of 230,000 children at risk of severe acute malnutrition during the lean season in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, alone. Their survival depends on the steps taken against the challenge.

The cost of inaction is that life is on the line. Children that survive acute malnutrition, from the fragile health conditions they have, may also face growth and development challenges throughout their lives. The cost of inaction is very expensive.

What do you perceive as the way forward?

Mohamed Malick Fall: I see several solutions around these challenges.

For funding, more innovative funding solutions are required. We must no longer rely on western countries as traditional donors.

A country like Nigeria is not poor. It is among the three biggest economies in Africa. It is increasingly urgent for the Government to allocate its own resources to the humanitarian response.

We also need to be more creative and see how we can make our humanitarian operations more efficient and more effective. There are many directions that need to be explored.

What can you tell us about International Laws?

Mohamed Malick Fall: Wherever you see conflict and war, it means that there are parties that do not believe in dialogue and in peaceful settlement of disputes.

For instance, the insurgents believe in extreme violence and terrorist actions. This is not peculiar to Nigeria. In the world, there are many wars taking place. Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, and these are coming on top of previous crises. You have Somalia and Syria.

The notion that any difference should be settled through arms and through guns amounts to pushing back on the principles of international laws. Many of the parties to conflict do not respect nor respond to the call of international humanitarian law.

How is UN supporting displaced people and the most vulnerable?

Mohamed Malick Fall: Whenever you see a crisis, those that pay the highest prices are the most vulnerable – the women, children, older persons, people living with disabilities, and that is why we prioritise them in our interventions.

There are provisions in our interventions that prioritize the protection of children. There are also provisions that specially protect women from grave violations of their rights and from sexual violence. The rights of people living with disabilities are also protected.

For me, the humanitarian space is one of the few spaces where humanity has its expression. It is a place where you see actors daily, risking their lives to go and save lives, reduce vulnerability, protect and help people get back on their feet.

It is also a space where you see host communities that are lacking in everything sharing the little, they have with people who are suffering or displaced.

It is a place where you see Government and non-state actors getting together, to reduce vulnerability and save the lives of people. The work of humanitarians saving lives etc. has just one name – humanity prevailing.

What is your message for stakeholders in the humanitarian space?

Mohamed Malick Fall: What we need to reduce the humanitarian needs in the world is for the people to go back to the principle of humanity.

If we act on preventing conflict, stopping conflicts, we will take away a huge number of people in humanitarian need.

At the same time, humanitarian needs are not only triggered by conflict; unfortunately, the way we treat our planet; the way we treat our ecosystems, the way we respond to the climate crisis that we are facing are also important issues.

We also have increased poverty and deeper inequalities. All of these are among the factors that trigger human suffering.

We need to address conflict, increased poverty, the climate crisis, and inequalities. If world leaders continue to push to address these issues and more, we will see a better world.

Members of the public should support humanitarian action. They should understand that it is not about humanitarian organisations and workers alone.

It is about the entire society. The call here is the expression of humanity. It is a call to every human being. It takes mobilization, commitment, awareness for every one of us to be part of that humanity.

The latest issue of the ESET Threat Report recounts the various cyberattacks connected to the ongoing war in Ukraine that ESET researchers analysed or helped to mitigate. This includes the resurrection of the infamous Industroyer malware, attempting to target high-voltage electrical substations.

ESET telemetry also recorded other changes in the cyberthreat realm that might have a connection to the situation in Ukraine.

The war has also been noticeably exploited by spam and phishing threats. After the invasion on February 24, ESET telemetry detected a large spike in spam detections, as scammers started to take advantage of people trying to support Ukraine, using fictitious charities and fundraisers as lures.

The ESET T1 2022 Threat Report reviews the most important research findings, with ESET Research uncovering: the abuse of kernel driver vulnerabilities; high‑impact UEFI vulnerabilities; cryptocurrency malware targeting Android and iOS devices; a yet-unattributed campaign deploying the DazzleSpy macOS malware; and the campaigns of Mustang Panda, Donot Team, Winnti Group, and the TA410 APT group.

The report also contains an overview of the numerous talks given by ESET researchers in T1 2022, and introduces talks from the RSA and REcon conferences in June 2022, showcasing ESET Research’s discovery of Wslink and ESPecter.

These appearances will be followed by a talk at the Virus Bulletin Conference in September 2022.

As other countries across the globe waged war on rising prices, Africa’s largest economy experienced periods of cooling inflation.

This anomaly was a welcome development for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and offered room for interest rates to be left unchanged in an effort to stimulate economic growth.

Fast forward to today, Nigeria’s annual inflation is back on the rise – accelerating for the fourth straight month to 17.71% in May.

It was the steepest inflation rate since last June, fuelled by rising food prices, soaring diesel prices, and ongoing dollar shortages.

On top of this, surging global commodity prices and pre-election spending have the potential to fuel the fire – especially after the IMF projected prices to rise between 18% and 22% in 2022.

The war in Ukraine has propelled global oil prices to levels not seen since 2014. This has sent shockwaves across the world and prompted central banks to adopt an aggressive approach toward raising interest rates.

While other oil-producing countries are enjoying the gift of soaring commodities, Nigeria has failed to cash in thanks to sub-optimal oil production, heavy reliance on gasoline imports, and fuel subsidies.

Meaning that the current commodities boom is not translating to higher export earnings for Nigeria but to higher costs and inflationary risks.

During the first quarter of 2022, Nigeria’s economy slowed for the third consecutive quarter to 3.1%. The CBN projects economic growth to be 3.2% this year while the IMF sees the country expanding by 3.4%.

However, Nigeria’s economic outlook remains threatened by disruptive power outages, foreign exchange shortages, capital outflows, and untamed inflation.

Given how the CBN has triggered a tightening cycle, more hikes are expected down the road. Back in May, the central bank surprised markets with a 150-basis point rate hike.

With the CBN now focused on fighting inflation and interest rates rising rapidly across the globe, more hikes could be on the table to limit capital outflows.

According to a report on Bloomberg, the CBN is expected to raise interest rates by 50 basis points two additional times in 2022 – bringing benchmark rates to 14%.

Theoretically, the rate hikes could limit inflation risks at a time when external and domestic factors are threatening Nigeria’s economy.

Ongoing geopolitical risks, extreme weather, and supply-chain disruptions could feed the inflation monster, while pre-election spending ahead of the general elections is likely to exacerbate the negative situation.

But the burning question is whether Nigeria is in a position to handle higher interest rates? Time will tell.

For more information, visit: FXTM