Hunger crisis threatens half of Somalia’s young children: UN

The drought has destroyed crops and inflicted “abnormally” high livestock deaths (AFP) 

Severe drought risks pushing nearly half of Somali children under five into acute malnutrition this year, with hundreds of thousands needing life-saving treatment, the UN warned Tuesday, calling for urgent action.   
 “Malnutrition has reached crisis levels,” said Victor Chinyama, head of communications for the UN children’s agency UNICEF’s Somalia operations.  “The time to act is now,” he told reporters in Geneva via video-link, cautioning that “if you wait until things get worse, or until famine is declared, it may be too late.” Somalia has been hardest hit as the Horn of Africa region grapples with its worst drought in decades, with the UN warning that 4.1 million people -- a quarter of the Somali population -- need urgent food aid. Chinyama said children were paying the highest price in the hunger crisis, with 1.4 million of them, or nearly half of all those under the age of five, expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year.   
 “Of these, 330,000 will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition,” which can lead to death, he said.  UNICEF, he said, urgently needs $7 million by March to purchase the therapeutic foods needed to treat those children.   
Without the additional supplies, “100,000 children with severe acute malnutrition will miss out on life-saving treatment,” he warned.   
Severe acute malnutrition can cause stunting and wasting and leaves children so weak that they become far more vulnerable to diseases.   
GENEVA (AFP), 15 Feb, 2022