The UN children's fund, UNICEF, has called on governments to act now to avert impending humanitarian crisis and soaring child deaths in the Greater Horn of Africa.
In a statement issued in Nairobi, UNICEF said a lethal mix of drought, expanding conflict, rising food and energy prices, disease, and high poverty are pushing children and their families in the Greater Horn of Africa to the brink of disaster.
The UN children's agency said actions and policies are needed now to avert grave human suffering in Ethiopia and Somalia which are the worst affected, but noted that parts of Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda show ominously similar signs.
"The time to act is now, to save children's lives," said Per Engebak, UNICEF's Regional Director for East and Southern Africa. "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."
Throughout the Greater Horn, UNICEF said 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.
UNICEF said an estimated 1.2 million people in Kenya are in need of emergency food assistance and many of those are children.
It said 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," UNICEF said.
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 percent, higher than the 15 percent 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.
According to UNICEF, drought and conflict are leaving millions food insecure and often cut off from relief in areas of Ethiopia.
The government estimates that 75,000 children are severely malnourished while 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 percent 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 percent higher than the national average," said UNICEF.
"By taking these critical actions, governments and their international partners can make a huge difference in the coming months," Engebak emphasized.
He said resources and actions are required to ensure relief supplies and basic services, including health care and sanitation for affected populations.
Source:Xinhua
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