United Nations Radio

PRES: UNICEF is deeply concerned that almost five million children under the age of five in the Horn of Africa are now suffering from hunger, caused by prolonged drought and the ongoing conflict in Somalia. [The agency says that since May, the number of young children in need of emergency assistance in the region has increased by nearly one million.] UN Radio's Patrick Maigua found out more from UNICEF's spokesperson for East and Southern Africa, Michael Klaus.

Duration: 2'37"

Klaus: We are really confronted with a severe drought here in the region, so countries like Kenya, where we are based here, it's the fourth consecutive rain season that has failed. And low and very erratic rainfalls have really caused severe losses in livestock, led to increases in food prices, water shortages, and so on. And what we really see here again like in many other crisis situations - it's mainly and first and foremost the children who suffer most.

Maigua: And which other countries are you concerned about?

Klaus: Well, it's all over the Horn of Africa, so you can start in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and also parts of Uganda are affected, where overall 24 million people, so adults and children, are affected and in need of food aid. So quite a severe situation. And if you look more into this how children are affected, I mean the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which is the state when it becomes life-threatening, has also increased. We are expecting that over this year, overall some five hundred thousand young children, under five, will have suffered from that problem.

Maigua: How is UNICEF coping with the situation?

Klaus: What we feel at the moment is really quite a severe shortage in funding, so this is really hampering our ability to support governments in this regard. Because what we have seen is our funding needs, which have been established for these countries I mentioned, at something like 190 million dollars, have only been met by 35%. Nevertheless, despite all these problems, there's also some progress. Ethiopia, for example, has increased the number of sites where severely malnourished children can treated from some 500 only 2 years ago to more than 3,000 now. Another example, also, Somalia, always seen and portrayed as simply a collection of problems, also has achieved positive things. We don't have access to all areas, obviously, but where we have access, we could help organize so-called child health days, where children really receive a whole package of interventions that includes immunization, de-worming, screening for malnutrition, promotion of hygiene and so on, and in these areas, we really have seen quite good results, reduction of acute malnutrition rates from 8% to 4%, for example. We really at least to a certain extent could improve the situation.

PRES: Michael Klaus, UNICEF's spokesperson for East and Southern Africa.