Severe malnutrition in drought-hit Wajid

High levels of malnutrition have been reported among internally displaced people in Wajid, southern Somalia, a region that has been hit by severe food and water shortages as a result of prolonged drought, agencies said.

A nutrition assessment conducted in two camps for the displaced in Wajid in early February revealed a global acute malnutrition rate of 27.1 percent and a severe acute malnutrition rate of 8.6 percent.

The assessment mission was carried out jointly by the Food Security Analysis Unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN World Food Programme and the nongovernmental organisation Action Contre la Faim.

Representatives visited every occupied structure (111 households) and surveyed all 142 children - who ranged in age from 6 months to almost five years - and all women aged 15 years to 49 years.

About 3.5 percent of the children had oedema, according to the survey. Oedema is a build-up of excess fluid in the body tissues, which is not a disease in itself, but a clinical sign which may be associated with an underlying medical problem, such as severe malnutrition.

Of the eight pregnant women who were evaluated, two were severely malnourished and three were moderately malnourished.

The current food crisis in southern Somalia, which is primarily due to the failure of two consecutive rainy seasons, has been compounded by ongoing insecurity.

Widespread crop failure has resulted in the lowest cereal production in two decades, rapidly increasing cereal prices, livestock deaths, abnormal population movements and extreme shortages of water and food.