‘Malnutrition May Kill 1.4m Children In Nigeria, Three Other Nations’

Children in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen might die of malnutrition in the government does not make adequate efforts to provide food and water for these affected areas.

As violence drives people in the Northern part of Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen away from their homes and farm lands, malnutrition rates, as stated by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), “ will continue to soar not just in these four countries, but also in the Lake Chad basin and the Greater Horn of Africa if humanitarian agencies do not get the access and resources they need to reach the most vulnerable, lives will be lost.”

UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine, made this known in a press statement yesterday in Jalingo, Taraba State.

UNICEF Chief of Communication, Doune Porter, who represented him, said children in the aforementioned countries “can’t wait for yet another famine declaration before we take action.”

Calling for urgent measure to halt the estimated numbers of children from dying as a result of malnutrition, he said “from Somalia in 2011 by the time famine was announced, untold numbers of children had already died. That can’t happen again.”

To arrest the situation, UNICEF “will require close to $255 million to provide these children with food, water, health, education and protection services for just the next few months.”

The remaining funds will help protect children affected by conflict and displacement and provide them with education services. Cash assistance will also be offered to the most vulnerable families.

In northeast Nigeria where most of the children are imminent to death, UNICEF has resolved to reach out to 3.9 million people with emergency primary healthcare services this year, treat 220,000 severely malnourished children under the age of five, and provide more than a million people with access to safe water.

Meanwhile, UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Walton Beckley yesterday said that mothers were being trained to “properly feed” their children and wards in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps to prevent severe malnutrition.

Beckley spoke yesterday at the “Infant and young child feeding counseling training” of 24 mothers at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Maiduguri.

Credit: The Guardian