Families facing the worst global hunger crisis in decades are resorting to desperate means to survive, drinking from cattle troughs, eating putrid meat, and fighting off wild animals for food, according to Save the Children, which has announced an urgent injection of funding to a rapidly escalating disaster. Extreme hunger threatens to claim thousands of children’s lives and futures in 19 countries over the next few months. These countries are Afghanistan, Myanmar, DRC, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon.
Figures show that the number of people going hungry daily has doubled to 276 million from 135 million in the past two years and now up to 750,000 people are facing famine conditions in five countries as drought collides with conflict and COVID-19.
The Horn of Africa has been crippled by drought after four consecutive failed rainy seasons with 18.4 million people facing acute food insecurity.
In parts of northern Kenya, the only water available to some families is from animal troughs which is spreading debilitating illnesses like diarrhoea through communities, severely impacting children.
Mthulisi Dube, a nutritionist currently working with Save the Children’s Emergency Health Unit in Turkana in Northern Kenya, said at least 229,000 children across northern Kenya are severely acutely malnourished with their lives at risk.
“There is illness everywhere, linked to hunger and thirst. I’ve heard that in some communities, the situation is so bad that after their animals starve to death, people have had to eat the putrid meat, because they have no other option for food. Children are drinking from drying riverbeds and wells normally reserved for livestock. They are coming down with diarrhoea, which is worsening their dehydration. It’s a vicious cycle."
In eastern Ethiopia reports of increased encroachments into communities by starving wild animals, with monkeys attacking women and children they think may be carrying food or water and warthogs coming into homes.
In South Sudan, the food crisis has been further compounded by the third consecutive year of severe flooding leaving an estimated 63% of the population – of 7.7 million people – facing high levels of acute food insecurity.
In Somalia 1.5 million children are expected to be facing acute malnutrition by the end of the year, including 386,400 who are likely to be severely malnourished.
In Afghanistan, 9.6 million children are going hungry every day due to a dire combination of economic collapse, the impacts of the war in Ukraine and an ongoing drought,
Gabriella Waaijman, Save the Children’s Humanitarian Director, said:
“The worst global food crisis in decades is putting millions of children’s lives on the line. The combined impact of conflicts, climate change, COVID, and the cost of inflating food prices due to the conflict in Ukraine crisis has left up to 750,000 people facing famine conditions. A further 49 million people could soon follow unless they receive immediate support. Failure to act now will prove catastrophic and could cost thousands of lives..." Gabriella Waaijman said malnutrition caused by extreme hunger remains one of the biggest killers of young children globally yet it is entirely preventable. "We know how to treat malnutrition and we know how to prevent it. All we need now is a unified global response to stop this hunger crisis in its tracks...we must change the course of this global crisis to create a safe, happy and healthy world for our children, free from harm and hunger.”
No comments:
Post a Comment