Acutely malnourished Somali children increase to 1.4 mln: UNICEF

The number of Somali children who are or will be severely malnourished has risen by 50 percent to 1.4 million since January, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The UNICEF said Tuesday the number includes over 275,000 who have or will suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in 2017.

Steven Lauwerier, UNICEF Somalia Representative, said about 615,000 people, the vast majority of them women and children, have been displaced by drought since November 2016.

"UNICEF and partners have treated over 56,000 severely malnourished children so far this year, almost 90 percent more than the same period in 2016,"Lauwerier said in a statement.

"But the combination of drought, disease and displacement are deadly for children, and we need to do far more, and faster, to save lives," he added.

The country's main rainy season Gu (April-June) is slowly unfolding, bringing much needed relief to parts of the country.

However, the UNICEF said if the rain come in full, it will inflict further misery on children living in flimsy, makeshift shelters made of twigs and cloth or tarps.

"If the Gu rains fail, and if assistance doesn't reach families, more people will be forced off their land into displacement camps. Outbreaks of malaria are already imminent, as is an upsurge of cholera," said the UNICEF.

According to the UNICEF, severely malnourished children are nine times more likely to die of killer diseases like cholera/acute watery diarrhea and measles, which are spreading.

During the 2011 famine in Somalia, an estimated 260,000 people died, over half of them being young children. The main causes of death among children were diarrhea and measles.

"The women and children who make the trek, generally on foot, to places where they hope to find assistance, are often robbed or worse, both on the way to, and in camps," the UNICEF said.

It said while there have been some reports of sexual abuse, including rape, most women do not come forward due to the stigma associated with rape and fear that their husbands will learn of it. Perpetrators of sexual violence are seldom punished.

The drought has also forced some 40,000 children to quit classes, as the most vulnerable families enlist children to search for water, or as they migrate in search of food and water.

There is anecdotal evidence of more children living on the street, and of displaced children being recruited into armed groups. Early planning and funding has made a huge scale up in assistance possible, the UNICEF said. Endit