Pregnancy has become a nightmare for many women in the north of the north of the Nigeria conflict
Drutuda, Nigeria – Aisha Muhammed was in the third trimester of her pregnancy when she had the convulsions and high blood pressure of lightning, a main cause of maternal death. The only health clinic in his village did not have a doctor, and the only medical help was 40 kilometers (25 miles) in one of the most dangerous places in the world.
More women die from childbirth in Nigeria than everywhere else in the world, according to the World Health Organization. But Muhammed managed to reach the city of Maiduguri and have a cesarean the next day, delivering twins in April.
“Even if children are a source of joy, if I should start the same ordeal, I’m afraid of getting pregnant,” she said, fighting in tears.
The chances are stacked against pregnant women in northeast Nigeria like never before. The deadly militant group of Boko Haram makes a resurgence. And hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign help in the United States, once the Nigeria’s largest donor have disappeared by the Trump administration this year.
The roads are closed by the fights. Many doctors and other health workers, as well as aid organizations, have fled.
In order to compensate for the lack of American funding, Nigeria has published $ 200 million in its health budget.
Even before these developments, Nigeria had more than a quarter of the global maternal deaths in 2023 – 75,000 – according to WHO.
At least one in 100 women dies by giving birth in the most populous country in Africa, which faces chronic under-financing for health systems that welcome 220 million people.
“If you are counting in five people, you know a woman who has probably had a problem with morbidity or maternal mortality,” said Jumoke Olingji, co-founder of the maternal well-being and child foundation based in Lagos. Maternal morbidity refers to health problems caused to mothers who survive.
The Associated Press visited the state of Borno, one of the regions most threatened by the Boko Haram insurgency. His activists fought a 14 -year conflict seeking to impose Islamic law and are best known for its mass kidnappings of schoolchildren.
Now, despite the efforts of Nigeria soldiers, Boko Haram has made more assaults, attacker almost daily in the region.
Health workers say it is increasingly difficult to recruit doctors and others, especially outside the relatively safe, Maiduguri state capital.
“There have been times when there were (advertisements) but no one wants it,” said Dr. Fanya Fwachabe, director of sexual and reproductive health at Borno State for the International Rescue Committee, one of the last international aid agencies that still work in the region.
Borno doctors can expect to earn around $ 99 at $ 156 per month.
Habid workers described local mothers who died because they could not reach care. Once the relatively peaceful communities have been transformed into a garrison cities for the army again, and some health systems collapsed.
The Borno government recognized the problem and cited insecurity.
Authorities must first ensure that she is sure for health workers, the BORNO State Hospital Medical Director told the AP.
But the brutal removal of American funding was a shock.
“We were seriously surprised by the order of shutdown, and we are seriously affected because we are not prepared,” said Kullima.
Fermata Muhammed entered the work suddenly in 2021. Without hospitals in her village of Bulabiline Ngaura, she and her husband left for Maiduguri, 57 kilometers (35 miles). But she started bleeding and delivered the child on the way, stillborn.
She said that mental anxiety still weighs heavily. Now the 30 -year -old is again pregnant. Since then, she has moved to Magumeri, a larger city whose main hospital was burned during an attack by Boko Haram in 2020. Now he has only a mobile clinic, which is not equipped to help in childbirth.
The prospects for more health resources have decreased in the region.
American foreign aid data shows that Nigeria has received nearly $ 4 billion in the American agency, which is now dividing for international development between 2020 and 2025, with $ 423 million going to maternal health and family planning.
Now let’s go. The United States Embassy has not answered questions.
And the other crises of the world, including Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, have led other donors to modify the financing priorities.
The disappeared financial aid and the government of Nigeria reducing the family planning budget of almost 97% in 2025, even women do not intend to face more choices.
Asked what she would like to see if she gets pregnant again, Muhammed looked down and counted with her fingers, listing hospitals, staff, drugs and open roads in an emergency.
“If there is all this, women will not lose their lives here,” she said.
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