Malnutrition widespread in Darfur - WFP

Almost 22 percent of children under the age of five in Darfur, western Sudan, are malnourished and close to half of all families do not have enough food, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN on Tuesday. The situation was particularly serious among internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to a comprehensive nutrition and food security assessment conducted in August and September among IDPs and other Darfur residents. Results of the survey, conducted by WFP in collaboration with other agencies, were released on Tuesday. At the time of the survey, food aid already played a critical role by reaching 70 percent of households among Darfur’s 1.45 million IDPs and 20 percent of resident households in conflict-affected areas, WFP said. A total of 24 percent of IDPs were found to be critically short of food. "The situation is extremely worrying", Peter Smerdon, spokesperson of the WFP, told IRIN. "The malnutrition rate for children in Darfur under the age of five is 21.8 percent - a figure well beyond the 15-percent rate regarded as indicating a serious situation - and a total of 3.9 percent of children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. "What is most alarming", Smerdon added, "is that none of the seriously malnourished children of families we surveyed received the therapeutic care they needed at special feeding centres. Besides a problem of capacity, we also found that many women with sick children simply did not know that these centres exist." The assessment mission recommended the provision of life-saving, general food rations for 94 percent of IDPs and in addition, supplementary feeding for all children under five and all pregnant and lactating women. However, the report added that increasing food aid alone could not reduce malnutrition. A basic minimum public-health package, including adequate supplies of clean water and medicine, needed to accompany food and nutrition aid. The survey was conducted in the three Darfur states – Northern, Southern and Western Darfur. WFP collected data on more than 5,000 people at 56 sites in collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US and UK branches of Save the Children. It was also supported by Sudan’s Ministries of Health and Agriculture and its Humanitarian Aid Commission. In September, WFP fed more than 1.3-million people in Darfur, representing 78 percent of conflict-affected people in areas accessible to UN agencies at the time, the UN agency said. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) fed approximately 100,000 other people in areas of Darfur rated as ‘no-go’ by UN Security. An ICRC assessment team, which had evaluated the food security situation in 20 rural villages in September, concluded that rural communities across Darfur were facing a food crisis that could be worse than the famines that hit the region in the 1980s and 1990s. The ICRC team reported that agriculture had collapsed, and a combination of insecurity and drought had destroyed traditional coping mechanisms of communities in Darfur. In many cases, farmers’ seeds and tools had been looted and their cattle stolen. On Tuesday, Japan decided to offer US $11.5 million in grants to help refugees affected by the conflict in Darfur. The money will go to four international organizations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF, and is meant for the improvement of the hygiene and medical conditions of IDPs in Darfur and others who fled to Chad. The Japanese Foreign Ministry is also considering food aid and assistance aimed at increasing local food production. The war in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and militias allegedly allied to the government against rebels fighting to end what they have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. The conflict has displaced an estimated 1.45 million people and sent another 200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad. The UN has described the Darfur problem as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The full nutrition and food security report is available online at: www.wfp.org and www.cdc.gov The ICRC report can be found at: www.icrc.org