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- Parents are burying their children along the roadside in Somalia after they died of hunger.
- Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia have seen huge increases in the percentage of malnourished children in the past five months.
- A Unicef director says it's a "perfect horror storm".
Amid claims that parents are burying their children along roadsides in Somalia after they died of hunger, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) has warned that the worst is yet to come.
At a press conference in Geneva, deputy regional director for eastern and southern Africa, Rania Dagash, pleaded that the world must not forget the crisis in the Horn of Africa while their "gaze" is on the war in Ukraine.
She said:
Millions across East Africa face extreme levels of hunger and malnutrition amid ongoing conflict, severe drought, locust plagues, and a shortfall in humanitarian funds.
Those who have been affected the worst are leaving their homes in search of food, arable land and water, leading to an increase in internally displaced people (IDPs).
Aid agencies, such as the World Food Programme (WFP), estimate that 70% of the IDPs are in dire need of relief aid.
In such predicaments, women and children suffer the most.
Dagash told of a pregnant mother of twins who walked more than a hundred kilometres to seek help.
He said:
Severe malnutrition
According to Unicef, Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, "recorded a significantly higher number of severely malnourished children admitted for treatment in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the first quarter of 2021."
According to Unicef figures, admissions in Ethiopia went up by 22%, by 48% in Somalia, and in the case of Kenya, it jumped by a massive 71%.
The past five months have been lethal.
Dagash added:
The crisis in Somalia broke the 2011 record of 340 000 children who required treatment at the time of famine. This time around, 386 000 are in need.
The figure contributes to more than 1.7 million children who are in urgent need of treatment for severe acute malnutrition in three countries: Kenya, Somali and Ethiopia.
War in Ukraine
In April, the WFP warned that hunger in West, Central, and East Africa was expected to reach record highs this month, quadrupling in just three years, from 10.7 million in 2019 to 41 million in 2022 – unless appropriate measures are taken urgently.
This has now come to pass.
Dagash said:
The situation created by the war in Ukraine also means that life-saving supplies for children have been greatly affected. Unicef has to dig deeper for more funding.
"These pressures are also impacting our response. The cost of the life-saving therapeutic food Unicef uses to treat children with severe acute malnutrition is projected to rise by 16% globally over the next six months, meaning Unicef will require an estimated additional $12 million (R192 million) more than expected in the Horn of Africa alone," she added.
Regional director for eastern and southern Africa, Mohamed M Fall, called the situation a "perfect storm of horror".
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
