… Says Estimated 3.5m Children Under 5 Experiencing Severe Acute Malnutrition
At least four countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan, are expected to run out of ready-to-use emergency food over the next three months due to aid cuts if gaps are not plugged, putting severely malnourished children at risk of dying, Save the Children said.
Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) is an energy-dense, micronutrient paste typically made using peanuts, sugar, milk powder, oil, vitamins and minerals that is packaged in foil pouches with a long shelf life and no need of refrigeration.
Over the past 30 years this emergency therapeutic food has saved the lives of millions of children facing acute malnutrition. A severely undernourished child is nine times more likely to die from common infections than a well-nourished child.
Across Nigeria, an estimated 3.5 million children under five are experiencing severe acute malnutrition and are at risk of death if they do not receive timely treatment and nutrition support, with northeast and northwest Nigeria most affected.
The country needs at least 629,000 cartons of RUTF to treat children who are severely wasted – or dangerously thin for their height – during the June-November lean season between harvests but so far only 64% of this has been secured.
Children in northern Kenya, particularly in Turkana county, are increasingly vulnerable to escalating malnutrition and food insecurity because of repeated droughts and floods.
During Kenya’s rainy season, which ran from March to May, the situation was expected to deteriorate with an estimated 2.8 million people likely to experience high levels of acute food insecurity – a 6% increase in the population classified as being in crisis or worse.
In Kenya, about 105,000 cartons of RUTF are needed to treat severely malnourished children through to the end of 2025. However, only about 79,000 – or 77% of the needs – have been met and stocks are expected to run out this October.
Sister Winnie, who runs a health clinic supported by Save the Children in Turkana said her clinic has been severely affected by US aid cuts and she’s tried to source therapeutic food from elsewhere to prevent a shortage:
“We have tried to source [therapeutic food] out from other facilities that have commodities so that we can fully support our children who are very, very malnourished. And if they are not supported, I know very soon [we] will be losing them.”
In Somalia, close to 1.8 million children – or nearly half of all children under 5 – are at risk of malnutrition with 1 in 8 children under five suffering from the deadliest form which requires RUTF treatment, or even admission to a stabilization centre for life-saving care.
But despite the needs, only 39% of the required nutrition funding for 2025 has been received, with the UN warning that September marks a critical turning point, with most aid agencies likely to face significant disruption to their nutrition programmes or be forced to scale down their support.
Children suffering from malnutrition are starting to feel the impact of dwindling funds.
Fifteen-month-old Dalmar was vulnerable to illness due to his premature birth. He was urgently admitted to a Save the Children supported stabilisation centre with malnutrition after being screened at home by Save the Children community worker Hafsa.
The stabilisation centre at the local hospital where Dalmar was admitted treats children under five who are malnourished and the service is offered for free. They are usually given special therapeutic milk and therapeutic peanut paste (RUTF) which helps them quickly regain their strength and protect against illnesses and infection.
Due to recent funding cuts, the centre had to feed Dalmar a substitute therapeutic milk, which staff were concerned led to slower recovery times for children in their care.
Dalmar was discharged after staying at the stabilization centre for eight days.
In Nigeria, Save the Children said it requires at least 3,000 cartons of RUTF every month for its ongoing malnutrition programmes but significant funding cuts in 2025 have multiplied the severity of needs and limited access to much-needed lifesaving support.
In South Sudan, the number of children under the age of 5 experiencing acute malnutrition has increased this year by 10.5% from 2.1 million to 2.3 million, while about 714,000 children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition.
However only one third of the children needing treatment for severe acute malnutrition in South Sudan received treatment between January and July, due to the closure of 15% of the nutrition facilities due to funding cuts and gaps moving to a government-led mode of frontline service delivery, the aid agency said.
Yvonne Arunga, Save the Children’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said:
“Imagine being a parent with a severely malnourished child. Now imagine that the only thing that could help your child bounce back from the brink of death is therapeutic food and that food is out of stock when it was once available.
“Hunger knows no borders and no limits and is a force that drains a child’s energy and silences their play and their dreams. At a time when global hunger is skyrocketing the funding that could save children’s lives has been cut because of recent aid cuts, leading to a global shortage of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food.”
The collapse in nutrition funding globally has been predicted to cut off treatment for 15.6 million people across 18 countries including over 2.3 million severely malnourished children in 2025 and predicted to continue to deteriorate in 2026.
Save the Children has been providing life-saving nutritional support to children for over 100 years, but this support is now at risk. Save the Children is calling on the international community to ensure children who are severely malnourished can receive the urgent support they need by increasing flexible funding to treat severe acute malnutrition and strengthening national and global supply chains.