UNICEF warns 1.4 mln children at imminent risk of death

NEW YORK, Feb 21 (KUNA) -- The UN International Children Fund (UNICEF) reported that almost 1.4 million children are at imminent risk of death from severe acute malnutrition this year, as famine looms in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen.
In a press release, UNICEF's Executive Director Anthony Lake warned that time was running out for more than a million children.
The children's fund confirmed that in Yemen, where a conflict has been raging for the past two years, 462,000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition. This number is nearly 200 percent increase since 2014.
As for northeast Nigeria, the number of children with severe acute malnutrition is expected to reach 450,000 this year in the conflict-affected states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobi.
UNICEF also warned in its press release, that the drought conditions in Somalia, 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, it added. 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.
Further, the UN nonprofit organization also highlighted that 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," it added.
Hence, 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.
Lake stressed in his press release, the severe malnutrition and looming famine are largely man-made.
Therefore, he said "we can still save many lives," and warned from repeating the tragedy of the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa. (end) mao.gta