Survey shows acute malnutrition in 30 percent of children

A survey of more than 6,000 children under five in the Liberian capital Monrovia has shown that about 30 percent are suffering from acute malnutrition, the relief agency Action Against Hunger said on Thursday. Any reading over 15 percent is regarded as an emergency, it noted. Action Against Hunger said about five percent of the children examined between 10 June and 31 July in government-held areas of the war-torn city showed evidence of severe malnututrion. "There is a big problem of malnutrition caused by the lack of access to food," Frederic Bardou, Action Against Hunger's head of mission in Liberia told IRIN. "The situation is making us feel uncomfortable treating malnourished children at our therapeutic feeding centres because after their stay, we send them back to their homes where they don't get food, and it is so disheartening since they relapse to their original state," he added. Monrovia has suffered chronic food shortages for the past two months as a result of three rebel attacks on the city. These have displaced over 200,000 people from their homes - up to 450,000 people according to some estimates - and have cut off most of the city's population from food stocks held at warehouses in the port. Monrovia Freeport has been occupied by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement since July 19. It has distributed rice from World Food Programme (WFP) warehouses in the port to the inhabitants of Monrovia's northwestern suburbs, which are under LURD control, but none has reached central and eastern parts of the city held by forces loyal to President Charles Taylor. Action Against Hunger said 1,965 out of 6,536 children screened since LURD began attacking Monrovia had shown Global Acute Malnutrition. Of these, 308 had shown Severe Acute Malnutrition. Bardou said the food crisis would persist until West African peacekeeping troops, which began arriving in Liberia this week, were able to take control of Monrovia and restore order. "As long as there is no security and stability in the city, no organisation can conduct large scale humanitarian relief which is desperately needed," he said. Relief workers say it could be several days before the peacekeepers gain control of the port, where WFP had about 10,000 tonnes of food stored before the battle for Monrovia began. But Justin Bagisrishya, WFP's country director for Liberia, said that some had been looted, along with several of the trucks used for food distribution. "We understand that we still have some food in the port, some of our trucks have been taken away, we hope they will be returned to us as soon as possible so we can operate," he told IRIN during a brief visit to Monrovia on Wednesday. With access to the port blocked, WFP has begun flying emergency food rations into Robertsfield international airport instead to prevent starvation. "I can imagine those people who have been cut off from food assistance for two months now, how hungry they are. The situation is becoming very bad for them," said Baisrishya, who is temporarily based in Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire. WFP flew 12 tonnes of high energy biscuits into Monrovia from Freetown in neighbouring Sierra Leone last weekend and Bagisrishya said an airlift of food with larger planes would start next Monday. The WFP official gave no details about the planned airlift, which he described as "an emergency action which is dictated by the handicap that we have in getting our relief food in the port." Bardou of Action Against Hunger said: "The more we wait for food for distribution, the more malnutrition rates go higher and the more it will become harder for us to address," He also highlighted the problems caused by an acute shortage of fuel in Monrovia. "In the next two to three weeks, most agencies will have no more fuel to help them get to the few places that are accessible," Bardou said. Aid workers have been relying on businessmen who once in a while bring in fuel but sell them at exorbitant prices." Medecins Sans Frontieres-France said it planned to begin the distribution of high energy biscuits to children under five at the Salala camp for displaced people in Bong County, north of Monrovia, on Friday. After screening 1,670 children there, it found that 20 percent were moderately malnourished, while just over two percent were severely malnourished. "From tomorrow [Friday], we will start the distribution of a supplementary ratio of BP5 biscuits in the camp," MSF Head of mission Pierre Mengee told IRIN from the Liberian capital Monrovia on Thursday. "We will give a kilogramme - sufficient for a week's ration and we will continue for three weeks," he added.