KEY TAKEAWAYS

•  The findings from the HSM showed concerning food consumption deficits and limited diversity of diets in the inaccessible areas surveyed. More than one in every two households (55 percent) struggled to have sufficient food intake and nearly 74.5 percent experienced a crisis or higher levels (CH Phase 3 and above) of food deprivation and hunger, further evidenced in the pervasive use of food-based coping strategies;
•  More than two in every three households relied on either crisis (36.2 percent) or even worse coping strategies to meet their food needs, which heightens economic vulnerability due to the negative impact on the future productivity of the most affected households;
•  The levels of acute malnutrition among new arrivals from the inaccessible areas are Critical (Phase 4 IPC Acute Malnutrition Classification) with the overall Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates 19.2% and Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) at 6.7%. The high levels of acute malnutrition indicate an extremely stressed population in relation to food insecurity, poor water, and sanitation access, and poor health conditions as the key underlying causes of acute malnutrition;
•  Detailed analysis among new arrival population with good quality and adequate sample size showed Critical (Phase 4) GAM rates across most of the areas. According to the HSM, a sizeable proportion of the children are suffering from stunting and underweight. This is characteristic of a chronically stressed situation of poor nutrition and persistent infection;
•  Overall, both crude and under five mortality rates were above the emergency threshold of 1 death/10,000 population/day and 2 deaths/10,000 population/day respectively with values of 1.67 deaths/10,000 persons/day for CMR and 2.02 deaths /10,000 under-fives/day. Analysis of the data for the 5 LGAs with the highest number of new arrivals reveals both CMR is highest in Bama (2.99 deaths/10,000 persons/day) and U5MR is highest in Gwoza (5.43 deaths/10,000 under-fives/day.
•  The elevated levels of consumption gaps, malnutrition, mortality, and unsustainable usage of emergency coping strategies, is largely driven by the limited availability of food stocks, restricted access to functional markets and poor water, health and sanitation services, which might heighten morbidity risk, and, impact more negatively on households' ability to engage in labour for food or resource gathering.