The lives of thousands of children under the age of five are in danger if the worsening food crisis facing southern Africa is not abated, according to UNICEF.
A UNICEF crisis assessment of nutritional status in Malawi taken last month shows that 45,000 children in that country are facing severe malnutrition, with the situation likely to deteriorate in the upcoming ‘lean season’ in August and September.
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And UNICEF says, unless the present food shortage is "urgently addressed", many of these children may die.
Contrary to recent reports which have suggested Malawi is the only sub-Saharan country at risk of famine, UNICEF says Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland are also facing severe food shortages.
UNICEF claims the crisis facing Malawi is due to flooding, drought and a government decision to sell off its grain reserves. While crop failures, poor harvests and in Swaziland, the lack of a national population policy, are being blamed for the catastrophic shortages facing the other regions.
According to UNICEF Ireland’s chief executive director Ms Maura Quinn, women and children are at most risk of disease and starvation.
"In a region already bearing the full brunt of the AIDS/HIV pandemic, the food crisis presents an ominous new threat to the survival of those most vulnerable - the children and women," she said.
Currently UNICEF is providing supplementary and therapeutic feeding to children and fortified maize meal to pregnant and breast-feeding women at various feeding centres in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The organisation is also working with governments in the region to conduct mop-up measles vaccination campaigns to prevent potential outbreaks, and is providing water and sanitation supplies to counter a cholera outbreak that has so far claimed over 600 lives.
UNICEF warns that the situation in southern Africa is threatening to become a major humanitarian catastrophe unless an immediate and effective response is set in motion.