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Roundup: Projected number of severely malnourished Somali children up 50 percent: UN agency

Xinhua, May 3, 2017 Adjust font size:

The number of children who are or will be acutely malnourished in Somalia has shot up by 50 percent since the start of this year to 1.4 million, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

The UN agency said the severely malnourished children are nine times more likely to die of diseases such as cholera and measles, which are spreading in Somalia.

During the 2011 famine in the African country that killed an estimated 260,000 people, more than half of them were children. The main causes of death among children were diarrhea and measles.

"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," said Steven Lauwerier, the UNICEF representative in Somalia.

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

Around 615,000 people, the vast majority of them women and children, have been displaced by drought since November 2016.

"New population movements will further aggravate the situation," Lauwerier said. "Those who remain at home need urgent assistance so that they do not need to flee; and those who have already fled, and are now in camps, are extremely vulnerable -- children most of all."

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

UNICEF and partners have set up and support 330 new nutrition centers, bringing the total to 837 across the country.

These sites have made it possible to treat 56,054 children suffering from SAM since the beginning of the year, almost double the number of admissions over the same period in 2016, with a 92 per cent recovery rate.

They also reached over 380,000 children and women with life-saving health services including emergency vaccinations, through support to over 100 health centres and 60 mobile and outreach services.

They provided 190 schools reaching almost 20,000 children with safe drinking water; set up temporary learning spaces enabling 43,000 children to learn; and provided emergency cash grants to almost 10,000 children at highest risk of dropping out.

They also jointly provided 840 unaccompanied and separated children, and 1,184 survivors of gender-based violence with critical services.

UNICEF has received 78.7 million U.S. dollars of its 148-million-U.S. dollar appeal, a 47-percent gap in funding. Endit