More than 700 children have died in Somalia nutrition centres, U.N. says

GENEVA/MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Hundreds of children have died in nutrition centers across Somalia, the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. the next few months.

Officials in one region of Somalia described starving people carrying children on their shoulders for long distances to escape drought and violence from al-Shabaab militants. Some children died along the way.

The Horn of Africa is facing five consecutive unsuccessful rainy seasons. The 2011 famine in Somalia killed more than 250,000 people, mostly children.read more

“Some 730 children have been reported dead in food and nutrition centers across the country between January and July this year, but many have died,” said UNICEF Somalia representative Wafa Saeed at a news briefing in Geneva. No deaths have been reported, so the number could be higher.

The center, for children with severe acute malnutrition and illnesses such as measles, cholera and malaria, provides a snapshot of the situation across the country.

Ahmed Shire, information minister for the province of Glamdug, north of the capital Mogadishu, said 210 people had died of malnutrition in recent months.

“Al-Shabaab has completely burned down five towns and even a well,” he told Reuters. “These people are suffering from drought and half of the animals have died. Al-Shabaab looted the rest.”

The mayor of Shire said about 1,000 families, each with at least seven children, were evacuated on foot and could not be rescued due to the threat of attacks.

Al-Shabaab is an Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda that has been attacking military and civilian targets for more than a decade.

Around 13,000 suspected cases of measles have been reported in recent months, with 78% of them under the age of five, according to UNICEF. .

Faduma Abdiqadir Warsame, who manages nine camps for displaced persons outside Mogadishu, said her team had buried 115 children and the elderly in the past three months.

“Thousands of remaining families are just skeletons.

“Children are buried like garbage along the alleys and walls,” she said.

Financial aid to Somalia has increased recently, with the United Nations’ $1.46 billion appeal now 67% funded. But aid officials have warned that more is needed.

“If we don’t act quickly, we will see the death of children on an unimaginable scale,” said Audrey Crawford, Somalia’s representative to the Danish Refugee Council.

Reported by Emma Farge and Abdi Sheikh. Additional writing by Estelle Shirbon.Editing by Rachel More, William McLean, Ed Osmond

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