UNICEF: 1.4m children risk death as famine looms in Nigeria, Somalia

Famine looms in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan with close to 1.4 million children at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition, UNICEF has said.

UNICEF revealed this via a statement by Doune Porter, UNICEF spokesperson, on Tuesday.

“Time is running out for more than a million children,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s executive director.

“We can still save many lives. The severe malnutrition and looming famine are largely man-made. Our common humanity demands faster action. We must not repeat the tragedy of the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa.”

The number of children with severe acute malnutrition in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, states in the northeast region that has been bedevilled by insurgency is expected to reach 450,000 in 2017.

According to UNICEF, Fews Net, the famine early warning system that monitors food insecurity, had in 2016, said famine is likely to occur in some previously inaccessible areas of Borno states, and that it is likely ongoing, and will continue, in other areas which remain beyond humanitarian reach.

“In Somalia, drought conditions are threatening an already fragile population battered by decades of conflict. Almost half the population, or 6.2 million people, are facing acute food insecurity and in need of humanitarian assistance.

“Some 185,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year, however this figure is expected to rise to 270,000 in the next few months.

“In South Sudan, a country reeling from conflict, poverty and insecurity, over 270,000 children are severely malnourished. Famine has just recently been declared in parts of Unity State in the northern central part of the country, where 20,000 children live.

“The total number of food insecure people across the country is expected to rise from 4.9 million to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the severity and spread of the food crisis.

“And in Yemen, where a conflict has been raging for the past two years, 462,000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition – a nearly 200 per cent increase since 2014.”

UNICEF said it is working with partners to provide therapeutic treatment to 220,000 severely malnourished children in Nigeria, over 200,000 severely malnourished children in South Sudan, more than 200,000 severely malnourished children in Somalia, and 320,000 children in Yemen.