Acute malnutrition rates rise as food crisis deepens

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it lacks adequate funding to deliver food aid to the most vulnerable people in Southern Africa. Aid agencies estimate that some 12 million people are food insecure in the region, which has suffered widespread crop failures due to erratic weather. The impact of HIV/AIDS, deepening poverty and the weakened capacity of governments to care for people in need have exacerbated the current crisis. "WFP needs US $77 million immediately to keep providing food aid in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe - the countries hit hardest by the region's food crisis - until June 2006, when the next harvest is due," the agency said in a statement. Lesotho and Swaziland will also receive food aid over the same period, WFP added. The agency aimed to reach nine million food insecure people in the region. As the hunger crisis deepens, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that malnutrition rates have continued to rise. In Zambia's food-insecure districts, acute malnutrition was at nearly eight percent, as compared to the five percent average recorded during the national 2001/2002 Demographic Health Survey and 2002/2003 NGO surveys, OCHA noted. In Madagascar, acute malnutrition rates doubled since 1997, reaching 14 percent countrywide. In Malawi, admissions of severely malnourished children to nutritional rehabilitation units in October rose four percent as compared to last year. OCHA added that in drought-affected areas of Mozambique, acute malnutrition was at five percent and, in Zimbabwe, vulnerable districts had recorded rates of nine percent. "The people who suffer the most when there are food shortages are the children, the sick and the elderly," Mike Sackett, WFP Regional Director for Southern Africa, was quoted as saying. "With so many young children having to fend for themselves and their siblings, there are valid fears for their long-term development and even their survival." Sackett warned that the traditional lean season, from January to March, would be tougher in 2006 than in previous years, "as most people affected by drought have already sold off every asset they had to buy food". "Maize prices are also extremely high in the affected countries, making it even harder for people with little money," he added. WFP's three-year food relief project, from January 2005 to December 2007, required a total of $621 million. The current shortfall of $299 million included the $77 million needed for January to April 2006.