23 April 2012 Situation overview An estimated one million children under 5 will suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), or up to 1.5 million in the worst case scenario, and approximately 3 million children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). The number of health centres with facilities for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition across the […]
4 April 2012 As malnutrition reaches emergency levels across the Sahel with at least one million children at risk, UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake on a visit to the region today called for an urgent escalation of humanitarian efforts to stop the crisis and the cycle of disasters. “This is a region always on the […]
![Tsahara Saidou holds her two-year-old son, Moctar, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, as they return to their home village of Garin Kouroun, Maradi Region. They have just visited the UNICEF-supported health centre in the village of Sarkin Yamma Saboua, approximately six kilometres from Garin Kouroun, in Madarounfa Department. [#5 IN SEQUENCE OF FIVE]
In March 2012 in Niger, under-five mortality rates remain among the highest in the world, the result of preventable or treatable conditions, including malnutrition. The country is one of eight in the Sahel region also including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and the northern parts of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal facing a nutrition crisis that now affects over 10 million people. Unless reached with appropriate treatment and prevention programmes, more than 1 million under-five children are at risk of dying from nutrition-related illnesses. The current crisis is the result of repeated drought-related food shortages, from which people have insufficient time to recover before being again affected. In turn, these shocks are exacerbated by chronic stunting, high rates of poverty and illiteracy and inadequate social infrastructure, including for basic child and maternal care. In Niger, over 331,000 under-five children are at risk of becoming severely malnourished, while cases of moderate acute malnutrition are expected to exceed 689,000. Over 5.4 million people some 35 per cent of the countrys population remain food insecure. Stunting prevalence is above 50 per cent; over 62 per cent of the population lives in poverty, and the adult literacy rate is a low 20 per cent only 12.3 per cent for women. UNICEF requires US$120 million to fund its Sahel emergency response in 2012, of which only 32 per cent has been received to date. The European Union (EU) is one of the largest international donors to UNICEF nutrition programmes in the Sahel and in other regions. In Niger, working with the Government and other partners, UNICEF is currently assisting over 37,000 under-five children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, with plans to reach 394,000. Support includes the provision of ready-to-use therapeutic food (a high-protein, high-energy peanut-based packaged paste for malnourished children that does not require cooking or handling). Plans are also underway to provide blanket feeding support for an additional 530,000 children aged 623 months and for 97,000 pregnant or lactating women during the lean season from April through October when food scarcity is greatest. UNICEF is also assisting other health, water, sanitation and hygiene, education and child protection initiatives.](https://www.unicef.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/63.jpg)
4 April 2012 While an end to famine conditions was declared in Somalia, another nutrition crisis has begun to unfold in eight countries across West Africa. In the Sahel region, more than 1 million children are now in danger of dying from severe acute malnutrition. UNICEF has launched a global fundraising campaign in Hong Kong, […]
26 March 2012 Highlights A serious food and nutrition crisis is threatening the Sahel region of Africa, with over 10 million people facing food insecurity and over 1 million children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in 2012, exacerbated by and complicating further needs in health, water and sanitation, protection, as well […]