Nigeria

OUR COVID-19 RESPONSE IN NIGERIA

Our teams are providing technical support across the seven Nigerian states where MSF works.

In Borno state in the northeast, MSF is providing technical and material support to the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 isolation centre in Maiduguri. Our existing programs in Gwange, Fori and Pulka continue to operate with more stringent infection prevention and control processes.

We continue to provide support to the Ministry of Health isolation facility in Jigawa by maintaining strict infection prevention and control measures and adapting triage in the MSF-run maternity hospital in Jahun.

In Zamfara, MSF continues to provide paediatric care to patients in Anka general hospital. We are providing technical and logistical assistance to the hospital and have established a malaria contingency plan to ensure we can continue to treat patients during the upcoming season. Together with the state health authorities, we are conducting a large-scale community COVID-19 information campaign. So far, our teams have visited 240 of the planned 370 settlements.

In Sokoto in the far northwest, MSF teams renovated a 32-bed isolation and treatment centre in for use by COVID-19 patients, which was completed in early May.

In Benue in the southeast, our clinics have implemented new triage and screening processes and are working to ensure staff safety and the use of personal protective equipment in all ongoing interactions.

In Ebonyi, we are supporting the Ministry of Health and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control in setting up the state’s first COVID-19 testing centre.

Our work in providing medical and psychological care for victims of sexual violence in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, is continuing with more thorough infection prevention and control measures.

In addition to our existing operations in all states, we are supporting the Ministry of Health by setting up isolation centres, establishing handwashing stations, conducting community-based health promotion activities, and creating isolation areas in camps for refugees and displaced persons.

Can you make a donation to support our COVID-19 response?

Right now, Médecins Sans Frontières is providing much needed support and medical care in over 30 countries to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our teams are also gearing up to confront potential outbreaks in the hundreds of areas we were already working before the pandemic struck. We are deploying medical staff, sending supplies and applying nearly 50 years of experience fighting epidemics to protect the most vulnerable and save lives.

Can you help increase our capacity to respond by making a donation to our COVID-19 Crisis Appeal?

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FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CORONAVIRUS COVID-19

With a population of over 190 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world.

One of the fastest growing economies in the world, petroleum and oil resources play a large role in Nigerian economic prospects. However, the security situation in many areas of the country has deteriorated in recent years, and violence and displacement have taken their toll on people’s health.

MSF has been responding to disease outbreaks and emergency health needs in Nigeria since 1971, focusing on maternal and paediatric healthcare throughout the country.

Borno crisis

Since May 2013, a violent insurrection by armed groups has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in northeast Nigeria. As such, a humanitarian crisis is raging in the Lake Chad region.

Vast numbers of people have been caught up in the conflict, and their access to medical services has been greatly reduced. Access to areas held by armed opposition groups, or contested by the two sides, has been restricted, and little is known about the needs of people in these locations.

According to the United Nations, more than 1.7 million people are internally displaced in the northeast of Nigeria.

Thousands have been killed in conflict, and many more by malnutrition, measles and malaria. People are unable to farm or sell their goods and mass displacement has resulted in catastrophic living conditions.

In some enclaves controlled by the military, people are unable to farm or fish due to restrictions on their movements, making them heavily dependent on humanitarian assistance.

What is going on in northeast Nigeria?

Despite the insecurity and challenges in accessing many areas, we have teams in Borno and Yobe providing healthcare and responding to emergencies in fixed and mobile facilities. Our staff manage mental health activities, monitor food, water and shelter needs, and respond to disease outbreaks.

MSF conducts monitoring for epidemic-prone diseases such as meningitis, measles, cholera and Lassa fever. We run mass vaccination campaigns across the country and our teams also provide seasonal malaria chemoprevention.

People are gathered, isolated and cut off in a half-destroyed town, and are totally dependent on external assistance, which is cruelly lacking. If we don’t manage quickly to provide them with food, water and urgent medical supplies, malnutrition and disease will continue to wreak havoc.

Hugues Robert

MSF Emergency Program Manager

Mother and Child Health

Another MSF staff help run maternity and neonatal departments and support basic obstetrics in health centres to reduce complications during pregnancy.

MSF supports a reconstructive surgery project in the Noma Children’s Hospital in Sokoto for patients with Noma disease and other conditions. As well as surgery, the team provides pre- and post-operative care and mental health support and active case finding in the region.

IDP's camp in Monguno, Maiduguri State, Nigeria.

It is estimated that nearly sixty-thousand women die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth every year in Nigeria, and one in eight children dies before the age of five. © Verli / MSF

We run a program for victims of sexual and gender-based violence in Rivers state, organising outreach and community-based awareness activities in schools, police stations and through media. The project also includes preventive treatment for sexually transmitted infections, emergency contraception, counselling and psychosocial support.

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