New survey indicates 40 percent child malnutrition

A new survey of young children living in camps for displaced people in the Liberian capital Monrovia indicates that nearly 40 percent of them suffer from malnutrition. World Vision said on Monday it had conducted a nutritional survey of 2,112 children under the age of five in 11 camps for displaced people from late June to the end of July. This found that 39.8 percent of them suffered from accute malnutrition. Action Against Hunger said two weeks ago that a screening of more than 6,000 children under the age of five over roughly the same period showed about 30 percent were suffering from accute malnutrition. Any reading over 15 percent is regarded as an emergency. World Vision said that using the weight for height method, it surveyed children between six months and about 5 years old in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, UNICEF and other non-governmental organization (NGO) partners. "We are planning to conduct more assessments," one UN official told IRIN by telephone from Monrovia, noting that several therapeutic and supplementary feeding centres were already operating in the city. Monrovia has suffered serious food shortages since early June when rebel forces began attacking the city. Aid workers reckon the ensuing weeks of chaos caused the displacement of between 200,000 and 450,000 people. However, with the departure of former president Charles Taylor, who relinquished power and went into exile on 11 August and the signing of a peace agreement between the government and rebels a week later, calm is returning to the battered city of more than one million residents, allowing relief agencies to resume their work. The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it had distributed food to 80,000 people in Monrovia over the past week. A ship carrying 2,300 tonnes of fresh WFP food supplies docked in the city's port on Tuesday.