1. Home
  2. HORN OF AFRICA

Thousands of children in need - UNICEF

[Angola] Children form 35 percent of those affected by the cholera outbreak. Paco Arevalo/MSF
Several thousand Angolans have been treated for cholera since the beginning of 2006
About 200,000 children in the Horn of Africa are suffering from acute malnutrition, diarrhoea and water-borne diseases after torrential rains caused flash floods, leading to population displacement and loss of homes and livelihoods, especially in Ethiopia and northern Kenya, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said. Seasonal rains had not ended the drought-related emergency in the region, and in many places had compounded the precarious situation, the UN agency said, noting that it needed nearly US $43 million to respond to the urgent needs of children and women in the area. The impact of the recent drought, it noted, was most severe in pastoral areas of five countries, particularly in Kenya and Somalia, where nutrition assessments indicate malnutrition levels far beyond emergency thresholds, but also in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. "Pastoralist children usually enjoy a diet rich in protein, but when livestock waste away during a drought, stop producing milk and then collapse and die, the deprivation of their normal diet comes as a shock to their metabolism," Unicef said in a statement. "Within a couple of months, the children become severely undernourished." It noted that many pastoralist families who lost most of their livestock over the past few months had migrated in search of water, food, jobs and support from family members in urban areas. This had made them increasingly vulnerable to political and economic marginalisation. "There is a growing consensus among aid agencies and governments that a better response would be to adapt services to the nomadic lives of the pastoralists, instead of forcing them to adopt a sedentary way of life for which they are ill-equipped," Unicef noted.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join