Soaring food costs, low rainfall and insecurity leave children in the Sahel at risk of catastrophic levels of severe malnutrition – UNICEF
DAKAR / NEW YORK, May.18, (ST)- The number of children with severe wasting was rising even before war in Ukraine threatened to plunge the world deeper into a spiralling global food crisis – and it is getting worse, UNICEF warned in a new Child Alert.
Almost 1 million children across the Central Sahel, are already suffering from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. This number will increase by 40 per cent to 1.4 million in the coming months due to the combined effects of multiple crises, including rising insecurity, increased food prices and climate change.
Released today, Severe wasting: An overlooked child survival emergency shows that in spite of rising levels of severe wasting in children and rising costs for life-saving treatment, global financing to save the lives of children suffering from wasting is also under threat.
“Even before the war in Ukraine placed a strain on food security worldwide, conflict, climate shocks and COVID-19 were already wreaking havoc on families’ ability to feed their children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “The world is rapidly becoming a virtual tinderbox of preventable child deaths and child suffering from wasting.”
Currently, at least 10 million severely wasted children – or 2 in 3 – do not have access to the most effective treatment for wasting, ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF). UNICEF warns that a combination of global shocks to food security worldwide – led by the war in Ukraine, economies struggling with pandemic recovery, and persistent drought conditions in some countries due to climate change – are creating conditions for a significant increase in global levels of severe wasting.