Reuters: Funding to tackle acute malnutrition in parts of Somalia has dropped by more than 80 percent this year, Médecins Sans Frontières said on Tuesday, even though one in every four children screened in displacement camps in the southwest is severely malnourished.
MSF Health Adviser Mitchell Sangma said the United States had cut its support to aid agencies in the country from $70 million last year to no funding this year, leaving aid groups struggling to respond as needs rise. Other Western donors have also cut funding.
“This year we have admitted 22,000 nutrition cases, more than 80 percent higher than last year. When we need this massive scale-up in intervention measures, we are seeing less interest from donor support,” Sangma said.
At the Elbet 1 camp, a collection of makeshift tents constructed by a patchwork of tarpaulins in the southwestern town of Baidoa, parents bring their children to a clinic under a corrugated iron roof. They are weighed and measured for height and the thickness of their arms, which is an indicator of malnutrition.
A July survey by MSF of 888 households in 14 displacement sites in Baidoa found that one in four children was severely malnourished. One third of families said they were surviving on one meal a day, while only 2 percent could afford three meals.
At the nearby Bay Regional Hospital in Baidoa, which treats people from the town, semi-nomadic communities and the camp for displaced, a dozen gaunt children lay on beds in one ward, some with drips in their hands as others were given oxygen to help them breathe.
My child had been sick for a month and a half, and we kept her at home. God knows we did not know that we could get medical assistance. We gave her a small amount of medicine, but it did not help,” said Abdi Isse, who lay next to his child, now admitted for malnutrition.
Failed Rains, Conflict, Exacerbate Crisis
Somalia Malnutrition Response Hit By More Than 80 Percent Funding Drop As Child Hunger Surges, MSF Says
