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Africa: UN Sounds Alarm As Hunger Plagues Millions of Children Print E-mail
Written by CISA   
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Almost 3 million children across the Horn of Africa are at risk of death, disease and malnutrition due to a combination of drought, rising food prices and conflict, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned.

The children are among the more than 14 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti that are critically affected, and the numbers are on an "alarming upward trajectory," according to UNICEF.

The agency said some experts are predicting that millions more children and families could be engulfed across the Horn of Africa if steps are not taken immediately.

"Strong national leadership is needed at this critical juncture, and more international funding must be quickly mobilized," UNICEF's regional director for East and Southern Africa, Per Engebak, said. "The risks to children and their families are immense and we are running out of time to reverse them."

Relief efforts in the troubled region have been hampered by weak governance as well as attacks on aid workers by armed groups. "Security is a major complication in responding to the needs of affected people in many parts of the Horn at this time," said Engebak.

He also underscored the difficulties of lack of access, along with the soaring cost of food grains and cereals worldwide. Food prices have risen by as much as 200 per cent over the past eight months in some of the worst drought-affected countries, making it nearly impossible for many families to purchase much-need items.

The high prices are also making it difficult for relief organizations to purchase the amount of grains and cereals needed to respond to the emergency. Also, the rising price of fuel - up between 300 and 1,000 per cent in Somalia, for example - threatens food and water deliveries.

"If concerted actions and funding are not forthcoming this crisis could have irreversible effects on the people of the Horn and push any prospect of progress towards the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] far beyond reach of their countries," Engebak said.

The number of those requiring assistance in Ethiopia is expected to rise from the current 4.6 million, according to UNICEF, adding that there are now 75,000 children there in need of therapeutic feeding.

Meanwhile, the number of people needing emergency aid in Somalia has spiralled upwards by 77 per cent since January, and now totals 3.2 million people.

Acute malnutrition has been witnessed among children in parts of Eritrea. In addition, 7,500 children in Uganda's Karamoja region are severely malnourished, while over 700,000 people there are estimated to lack sufficient food.

In Kenya, UNICEF said an estimated 1.3 million are affected by food insecurity, about 840,000 of these in the arid and semi-arid pastoralist areas and the others displaced during the violent political crisis early in the year. Over 95,000 children under the age of five and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the drought-ravaged areas of northern and eastern Kenya are malnourished.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 September 2008 )