Thousands malnourished in Kinshasa

A large number of children in Kinshasa are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition, particularly in semi-rural areas on the outskirts of the city, a nutrition survey has found. The survey, conducted by Action contre la faim (ACF-USA) and the government in October, measured some 3,600 children under five years old in two urban and two semi-rural communes of Kinshasa. It found that 8.7 percent and 7.9 percent of children in the two semi-urban communes were acutely malnourished, of whom almost three percent were severely malnourished. The global malnutrition rates in the two urban areas surveyed were 3.5 and 4.7 percent. The survey report, received by IRIN, said population displacements and the deep economic crisis resulting from the war had aggravated people’s precarious food security status, particularly in cities. Only a small percentage of malnourished children in Kinshasa were receiving assistance in nutritional centres, it said. The survey results showed that further nutritional and food security interventions in Kinshasa “appear indispensable”, the report added.