Child malnutrition rate in Sudan’s Darfur drops, but more needs to be done

Acute malnutrition among children aged 6 months to five years in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region has been cut by more than half over the past year thanks to a sustained humanitarian assistance programme but this progress could be threatened by the recent flare up of insecurity, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced.

Despite the significant reduction from 21.8 per cent in September 2004 to 11.9 per cent this month, much still needs to be done, the agency said in a news release, appealing for continued international support.

Micronutrient deficiency is still a major problem with one in four women suffering from iodine deficiency disorder, only 69 per cent of children under five are immunized against measles and 14 per cent of women suffer from night blindness, which can be caused by vitamin A deficiency.

“Assistance needs to reach communities in the rural areas while we continue to sustain ongoing services in the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps and immediate surrounding areas,” UNICEF’s Special Representative for the Darfur Emergency, Keith McKenzie, said of the region, where fighting between the Government, allied militias and rebels has displaced 2 million people.

“Women and children in these hard-to-reach rural areas are now the most vulnerable and are at high risk of malnutrition and disease. The recent increase in conflict, banditry and general insecurity threatens to undo the gains made as assistance programmes are being severely curtailed,” he added.

The new figures come from a comprehensive nutrition and food security assessment carried out by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and UNICEF, and supported by the Ministries of Health and Agriculture, non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, and with technical input from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The sample for the survey was drawn from the 3.2 million IDPs and host communities in the Darfur. More than 100 experts and enumerators from the three UN agencies and partners were deployed and visited over 2,000 households.

The survey showed that coverage of food aid, selective feeding programmes, safe drinking water and sanitation and health programmes had improved in the IDP camps and surrounding host populations but that assistance to affected populations in the rural areas has been extremely low.

Fifty-four therapeutic feeding centres and 96 supplementary feeding centres, supported by UNICEF, WFP and other partners, assist approximately 25,000 malnourished children every month.