Aid Groups Marshal Scarce Resources to Save Ethiopian Children.
Thousands of acutely malnourished children have been admitted to hastily-established feeding centers in hopes of staving of starvation and death.
MSF reports that 68 children suffering from severe malnutrition died in the Somali region’s Doolo zone last month despite receiving care at the organization’s clinics.
"Everywhere in the world, the children under five years of age are always the most vulnerable, and they’re the ones that always succumb to disease and malnutrition first," says Tara Newell, an MSF emergency coordinator.
Uphill battle MSF, along with the Ethiopian government and other aid agencies, is trying to prevent more kids from dying but they face an uphill battle against a drought that began last year and is predicted to run until early 2018.
From March until May – the rainy season in the Horn of Africa – large parts of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya experienced less than 70 percent of usual cumulative rainfall, according to FEWS NET, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.
That may be too late for many Somali region residents who have used up all of their resources, says MSF’s Newell.
Even with massive rains in the coming weeks, it doesn’t change the situation of malnutrition because the livestock take a long time to rebuild in those communities, and people need food now."
and Hunger Across Africa.
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