Over 120,000 Ethiopian Children Need Urgent Care for Malnutrition

An estimated 126,000 Ethiopian children are in need of urgent therapeutic care for severe malnutrition due to the current drought in some parts of the country, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) disclosed on Tuesday.

UNICEF Ethiopia cautioned that up to 6 million children under-5 years of age are living in impoverished, drought prone districts and require continuation of urgent preventive health and nutrition interventions.

The situation is the worst since the major humanitarian crisis of 2003, and is rapidly deteriorating and $50 million is urgently required for health, nutrition, and water and sanitation, UNICEF said.

“It is extremely unfortunate that the combined effects of drought, food price hikes, and insufficient resources for preventive measures, resulted in an emergency that jeopardizes significant child survival gains in Ethiopia.”

Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF representative in Ethiopia, said the mechanisms and capacity to prevent and respond to the increase of severe acute malnutrition are in place “but are under resourced”.

Source African Press Agency

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