Kenya / Uganda / Eritrea / Djibouti / Act Now to Avert Impending Humanitarian Crisis and Soaring Child Deaths in the Greater Horn of Africa, UNICEF Urges

 

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 2, 2008/African Press Organization (APO)/ — A lethal mix of drought, expanding conflict,

rising food and energy prices, disease, and high poverty is pushing

children and their families in the Greater Horn of Africa to the brink

of disaster. Actions and policies are needed now to avert grave human

suffering.

 

Ethiopia and Somalia are the worst affected, but parts of Eritrea,

Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda show ominously similar signs. “The time to

act is now,” said Per Engebak, UNICEF’s Regional Director for East and

Southern Africa, “to save children’s lives. Committed, proactive, and

decisive actions on the part of national governments and international

partners can mitigate the multiple threats to children and families in

the Greater Horn of Africa. The signs are there and governments and

international partners must heed them and act on them.”

 

In Somalia, buffeted by the combined shocks of conflict and by recurrent

waves of drought and flooding, the global acute malnutrition rates are

now above 20%, higher than the 15% rate that indicates a severe

nutritional situation warranting emergency responses. Similarly high

rates are being found among children in other parts of the Greater Horn.

 

In areas of Ethiopia, drought and conflict are leaving millions food

insecure and often cut off from relief. The Government estimates that

75,000 children are severely malnourished. Uganda is recording a new

wave of disturbing malnutrition in the northern pastoral region of

Karamoja, which has endured flooding, then drought and devastating

animal diseases since last year, with malnutrition rates above 15%

recorded in February 2008. Malnutrition will add to the burden of

children in the area who face high levels of malaria and pneumonia and

where child mortality is already 30% higher than the national average.

 

In Kenya, an estimated 1.2 million people are in need of emergency food

assistance and many of those are children. Pastoralist populations in

the arid and semi-arid north are particularly affected, but food

insecurity is growing, an aftershock of the post- election violence

which displaced people (77,000 remain cut off from their farms and

livestock) and interrupted the agricultural cycle. High fuel and

agricultural input costs and disappointing rains in much of the country

are worsening the situation.

 

Throughout the Greater Horn, malnutrition is compounding the risks to

survival that children routinely face, including pneumonia, diarrhoeal

diseases and other infections. Recent years have seen an increase in

acute watery diarrhoea and cholera in many of these countries affecting

tens of thousands of children.

 

To stop and reverse the trends auguring another major humanitarian

disaster, the international community and donors will need to fully

support the responses of governments in the region to stabilize the

situation and enable timely and effective responses. Resources and

actions are required to ensure relief supplies and basic services,

including health care and sanitation for affected populations. And

systems are needed to clear and distribute food and non-food relief

supplies.

 

“By taking these critical actions, governments and their international

partners can make a huge difference in the coming months,” Engebak

emphasized.

 

SOURCE : United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)