Nairobi, June 14 (AFP) РThe rate of malnutrition among children in southern Somalia has sharply increased this year, despite the return of rains after a long drought, M̩decins sans Fronti̬res (Doctors without Borders РMSF) warned in a statement on Wednesday.
MSF clinics have admitted more than 600 patients to its therapeutic feeding programme since the beginning of 2006, 10 times more than in the same period last year, the non-governmental organisation said in a statement released here.
“Admissions in the programme have more than doubled over the last 15 days with 73 and 87 children admitted in the last two respective weeks. Under-five year old children are the most severely hit by the food crisis and are equally victims of watery diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections,” the statement said.
“The structural deterioration of the health situation of the average Somali, year after year, is extremely worrying… at a time when the southern part of the country is facing a serious food and water crisis due to the effect of several years of drought,” said Bruno Jochum, Somalia programme manager for MSF Switzerland.
“In many parts, coping mechanisms are stretched to their limits. The lack of international humanitarian actors directly present in the field able to provide quality assistance is only increasing the misery in which average people find themselves,” Jochum said.
The United Nations says that of the $326-million requested for humanitarian support for Somalia in 2006, donors have delivered only 40 percent, half of which is for food. About two million people are still in need of humanitarian aid in Somalia.
Some 15 years of conflict have ruined health infrastructure and hampered the delivery of services in the country, home to about 10 million people
Source: AFP, June 15, 2006
