Alarm bells sounded as malnutrition rates rise

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie was due to arrive in Eritrea on Monday to assess the situation in the drought-affected country amid a warning from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) that the rate of malnutrition was rising "alarmingly". McAskie was to participate in the launch of the 2003 mid-year review of the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Eritrea, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. According to OCHA, the appeal, launched in November 2002, aimed to raise US $163 million for emergency humanitarian relief in response to Eritrea's worst drought in a decade. A total of $69.2 million has been pledged so far, with a shortfall of $90.7 million remaining. On Friday, WFP spokesperson Christiane Berthiaume said that the rate of malnutrition in Eritrea was rising alarmingly with "more than one in five children not getting enough to eat". According to WFP, 21.7 percent of children are suffering from malnutrition, while a hunger rate of 13-14 percent is normally considered alarming. Berthiaume, speaking in Geneva, said that WFP had had to cut down its rations because it had received only $49 million after appealing for $100 million at the beginning of the year. She said WFP would run out of stocks by the end of July. "If the summer rains are not enough, the situation in the autumn will be catastrophic," Berthiaume warned.