The cries of children fill the intensive care unit of Nilefa Kiji, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF)’s nutrition facility in Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria. Nurses move from bed to bed checking vital signs, dispensing therapeutic milk and reassuring anxious parents. Every child here is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a condition that continues to […]
Janada James is part of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF’s) midwifery team in the town of Maiduguri and shares her story of how she chose her career and what it means to her. “Janada, where are you?” calls my mother. “See me mummy!” I reply. I am 12 years old. “Bring me ash! And detergent!” She […]
Read More… from Nigeria: A midwife inspired by generations before her
MSF teams responding to Lassa fever seasonal peak in six states. “Lassa fever is a disease that essentially disguises itself,” says Ayokunnu Raji, physician and MSF emergency medical program manager. “At the beginning, symptoms are very similar to other common illnesses in Nigeria such as malaria or typhoid — by the time many patients arrive at our treatment centre, they are already critically ill.” One of those patients was Musa, […]
Read More… from Nigeria: Reducing fear, improving care during severe Lassa fever season
In September 2025, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) concluded our Cross River project after three years of collaboration with the state Ministry of Health (MoH). We provided free, comprehensive healthcare to thousands of people living in Akor and Old Ndibeji, near the Nigerian-Cameroonian border. Launched in May 2022, the project supported two general healthcare […]
Read More… from Nigeria: MSF hands over Cross River project after three years of medical care
Stories from women in some of the world’s most remote places reveal that the challenges of giving birth safely are strikingly similar across continents. And they are preventable. Three women living in vastly different places are brought together by shared challenges during pregnancy: Hermina in Central African Republic (CAR), Murjanatu in northern Nigeria and Sabera […]
Read More… from Maternal health: “I don’t know what will become of her. She’s a girl”
The wards of the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-supported hospital in Gummi, Nigeria, are rarely quiet during the rainy season. Mothers sit close to metal beds, watching over children facing fevers, convulsions and exhaustion. Outside, the rain brings relief from the heat. But inside the hospital’s walls, it brings a surge of complicated malaria […]
Every year, millions of children around the world suffer from malnutrition — a crisis that is all too visible in their frail bodies and tired eyes. But what is often less visible, yet just as devastating, are the psychological wounds that malnutrition inflicts on both children and their caregivers. Over the years, the upward surge […]
Read More… from Nigeria: Addressing mental health and malnutrition together
In 2024, the MSF team at Unguwa Uku hospital in Kano, Nigeria, admitted 46,304 children for malnutrition. The factors behind the crisis are complex, including climate change, armed conflict and the spiralling cost of living. Most children can be treated at home with special therapeutic food, whilst those with complications need more intensive care and are […]
At Jahun general hospital in northern Nigeria, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams provide reconstructive surgery, mental health care and rehabilitation for women with obstetric fistulas. Around 300 women benefit from these services every year. “We don’t see fistulas in [high income] countries because there’s access to cesarean sections or suction cups, but here in […]
To improve patients’ healthcare in northern Nigeria, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is embracing solar energy to power the hospitals we support, facilities which have historically depended on expensive fuel-intensive generators. By moving to renewable energy, communities in the region now have better, more sustainable access to critical medical devices, medication and infrastructure. Moments […]
Read More… from Nigeria: Harnessing solar power improves care in northern hospitals