Share & more
The humanitarian situation in Makeni district, northern Sierra Leone, is "catastrophic", according to Action Contre la Faim (ACF), which estimated that over 30 percent of children under the age of five surveyed in Makeni town were malnourished.
Of the 95 children under five screened in the town by a team of
humanitarian workers, 17 were "moderately malnourished" and 17 "severely malnourished."
The mission, which visited the area on 23-26 July, also made nutritional surveys in four villages surrounding Makeni. It found that the percentage of malnourished children in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the district was even higher.
In Magbenteh camp on the outskirts of Makeni, which has some 2,000 IDPs, 43 of the 97 children surveyed were "severely malnourished."
ACF's Head of Mission in Freetown, Marc Gordon, who was part of the Makeni mission, told IRIN on Thursday that the fact that adults were suffering from malnutrition, which was unusual, was one indication of the gravity of the situation.
[See Item: irin-english-1317 titled 'SIERRA LEONE: Catastrophic situation in Makeni, NGO says']
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
