SOKOTO – When doctors told Maryam Aminu in April that her youngest child was malnourished again, the news did not come as a shock. The 18-month-old, the last of her six children, had not been eating regularly, and nutritious meals had become even harder to provide.
The family, living in northwest Nigeria, had long been squeezed by poverty. But their hardship deepened after February, when Aminu’s husband, Shehu Aminu, lost his work as a taxi driver following a sharp rise in retail petrol prices linked to the war in Iran.
“When she was diagnosed the second time, even though I suspected it, I was sad and angry because I knew why,” Aminu said from the living area of the family’s plain two-bedroom home in Kware, a quiet town in Sokoto, as smoke from a coal stove drifted through the room. “Times are tough, and the food is not consistent.”
Across Sokoto and much of northern Nigeria, health workers and humanitarian groups say more children are slipping back into malnutrition after treatment, a trend they attribute in part to the ripple effects of the Iran war.
Northern Nigeria, already among the poorest regions in the world, has been strained for years by insurgency and insecurity. Now, the conflict in the Middle East is adding another layer of pressure, worsening food insecurity for millions of low-income households and hitting children especially hard.
The external shock has collided with domestic economic pain. President Bola Tinubu’s sweeping reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidies three years ago and a currency devaluation, have fueled steep inflation. A World Bank technical report released this week said 139 million Nigerians are now poor or at risk of falling into poverty.
UNICEF warned this week that if the Middle East war persists, as many as 23.4 million more children could be pushed into monetary poverty by the end of the year, meaning they would lack sufficient income or consumption. The U.N. children’s agency said at least 80% of those affected would be in Africa and Asia.
“Children are paying the price for the escalating conflict in the Middle East, including children far beyond the region,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. “The longer this continues, the worse the consequences will be.”
Dangers ahead for children
Amid the Iran war, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed before the war — 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“I am worried and sometimes angry about the increasing numbers we are seeing,” said health worker Halimah Muhammad.
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.
“Their 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,” said Russell.
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.
“I wake up every morning unhappy, seeing I can no longer provide for my family,” said Shehu, Maryam’s husband. “Then, 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.”
Most of their meals are pap, a kind of corn pudding, and rice. “There is no way to feed the children,” he said.
‘I wish she were excited and full of life’
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.
“This distant war offers no relief for the north’s vulnerable,” Ikemesit Effiong, a partner at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based geopolitical risk advisory, said.
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.
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.
Malami worries about the fuel price because it keeps the price of food high and her husband away. “I worry that the child might never be fully well,” she said.
That is a sentiment shared by Aminu, too. “I wish she were excited and full of life,” she said.
______
For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse
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’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
