Rising violence threatens gains in slashing malnutrition rates

Sustained humanitarian aid has resulted in almost halving malnutrition rates in the western Sudanese region of Darfur since 2004, a food security and nutrition assessment found. However, escalating violence is threatening the aid operation, the survey found. Preliminary results of the food security and nutrition assessment carried out in Darfur showed global acute malnutrition rates (GAM) among children under the age of five years fell to 11.9 percent in September, from 21.8 percent at the same period in 2004, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement on Friday. GAM rates of 15 percent and above are generally considered an emergency. Severe acute malnutrition rates dropped from 3.9 percent to 1.4 percent. WFP, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), supported by the Sudanese ministries of health and agriculture, NGO partners; with technical input from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta carried out the Darfur nutrition and food security assessment. Survey teams were deployed in all three Darfur states and interviewed 2,090 households, selected from the 3.2 million IDPs and host communities in Darfur. The survey showed that coverage of food aid, selective feeding programmes, safe drinking water and sanitation and health programmes had improved in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and surrounding host populations, but that aid to affected populations in the rural areas, particularly in areas not controlled by the government, had been extremely low. "Assistance needs to reach communities in the rural areas while we continue to sustain ongoing services in the IDP camps and immediate surrounding areas," Keith McKenzie, UNICEF special representative for the Darfur emergency, said. "Women and children in these hard-to-reach rural areas are now the most vulnerable and are at high risk of malnutrition and disease." WFP Country Director Ramiro Lopes da Silva said the current rise in violence was severely affecting humanitarian work across Darfur. "What we should be doing now is building on the achievements of the last 12 months of hard work. "We should be expanding our operation to cover areas of need among rural populations and nomads who are also suffering as a result of the conflict, which is disrupting markets and their entire local economy. "Instead, because of the violence, much of our time is spent devising contingency plans, just to maintain the gains we've made so far," Lopes da Silva said. The rapidly deteriorating security situation also meant the result of the current harvest was uncertain, WFP said, although the assessment indicated better crop conditions than 2004. The assessment showed that access to food had worsened due to the collapse of the economy, a poor harvest in 2004 and the additional burden of IDPs on host communities. "The results underline the importance of maintaining food aid as well as other services particularly water, sanitation and health. This is the only reason we are seeing the lower rates," Lopes da Silva said. He said if aid was reduced because of conflict, insecurity or funding shortages, malnutrition rates would rise dramatically. Fifty-four therapeutic feeding centres and 96 supplementary feeding centres in Darfur were still assisting approximately 25,000 malnourished children every month, UNICEF on Thursday said in a statement. Lopes da Silva said people who are extremely fragile and chronically malnourished were being helped. "Any interruption to this assistance would certainly result in a rapid return to the crisis level measurements we recorded last year - or worse - and that would be a tragedy," he said. "People in Darfur are still living on a tightrope; humanitarian assistance is indispensable, and it must continue."