Millions on the brink of famine

Unicef needs $255 million to feed starving children

MILLIONS of children are on the brink of starvation in the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef ) has warned.

Unesco is urgently calling for nearly $255 million (R3.3 billion) to respond to immediate needs in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. “Time is running out,” Unicef said. Some 22 million children are hungry, sick, displaced and out of school in the four countries, according to the UN agency.

Nearly 1.4 million are at imminent risk of death this year from severe malnutrition.

“We learned from Somalia in 2011 that by the time famine had been announced, untold numbers of children had already died.

“That can’t happen again,” said Manuel Fontaine, Unicef’s director of emergency programmes. A global charity said yesterday that more than 3 000 Somalis were fleeing daily due to severe drought.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said 438 000 people in Somalia had been displaced since November by the country’s worst drought in 20 years.

“Over 3 000 people a day are being forced to abandon their homes in search of water and food. This is the highest displacement we have witnessed since the 2011 famine, and it’s spiralling higher each day,” said NRC’s country director in Somalia, Victor Moses.

Almost 85 000 people have arrived in the capital Mogadishu since November.

“Families have told us harrowing stories of abandoning their weak cattle, of being forced to leave their homes to search for food and water,” NRC said.

Forecasts indicate that below, to near average, rainfall is expected across most parts of Somalia between April and June.

The charity said the drought was forcing people to drink unsafe water, with some 11 000 cases of cholera having been confirmed so far, while 268 people had been confirmed dead this year in areas where aid agencies had access.

Famine was declared a month ago in South Sudan, and will probably be declared soon in Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen where fighting has pushed people off their farmland and droughts have destroyed their animals and what is left of crops.

Most of the $255m will go towards nutrition programmes to screen children and provide them with therapeutic food, as well as health services, water and sanitation. – ANA and Xinhua

PICTURE: AP DESPERATION: A baby suffering from severe acute malnutrition is weighed as other mothers look on with their children at Al Sabbah Children’s Hospital in Juba, South Sudan. The world’s largest humanitarian crisis in 70 years looms after famine was...