UNICEF has warned that nearly 1.4 million children in Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are suffering from severe malnutrition, and could die of starvation during 2017.
In Yemen, where fighting has raged for nearly two years, 462,000 children are affected by acute malnutrition, while 450,000 children are severely malnourished in northeast Nigeria, said the UN agency.
UNICEF’s Director, Anthony Lake, asked the international community to act quickly.
‘We can still save many lives’, he said.
In Somalia, drought has put 185,000 children at risk of hunger, and the figure is expected to rise to 270,000 over the course of the next few months.
‘It has not rained for a long time. It has meant that livestock have died, and crops have wilted. We are finding dead animals, empty watering holes, and empty cities.
People have migrated in search of food and water’, said Denmark’s ‘Save the Children’ Director, Jonas Lindholm.
Half the population is struggling with food shortages, and several localities have erupted with cholera and diarrhea, which spread in the drinking water’, wrote Al Jazeera.
In southern Sudan, over 270,000 children are malnourished, and a famine has been declared in parts of the state of Unity in the north of the country, with a population of 20,000 children.
Fighting between government and rebel groups in the country have prevented aid reaching the people who are affected by the food shortages.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
