Some 20.2 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are affected by the worst drought in the region in 40 years, a figure that has doubled in the last five months, UNICEF warned on Friday.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), almost two million children in these three countries in the Horn of Africa suffer from severe acute malnutrition, the most “lethal” state of hunger that weakens the immune system and represents a risk of death.
Also, if left untreated, malnutrition can seriously impair children’s physical and brain development.
“While collective and accelerated efforts have mitigated some of the worst feared consequences, children in the Horn of Africa continue to face the most severe drought in more than two generations,” said UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Lieke van de Wiel.
About 2.7 million children were also forced to drop out of school due to the drought and another 4 million are at risk, according to the UN agency.
“As families are stretched to the limit and face increasing stress, children face a variety of risks, including child labor, child marriage and female genital mutilation,” it added.
In the three countries, about 24 million people suffer from water scarcity and more than two million have been internally displaced by the lack of rain, says UNICEF.
Hardest hit was Somalia, where the number of people affected rose from 3.8 million in January to more than 7.8 million today, according to the UN.
Nearly 1.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Somalia due to drought, after the number of displaced has increased fivefold so far this year.
The NGO Plan International said in early December that more than half of all children under five in Somalia – around 1.8 million – are severely malnourished.
Source: TSF
