7 April 2010 – A United Nations-supported survey has revealed alarming acute malnutrition rates among some 530,000 children under five and more than one million pregnant women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The Government survey was conducted last year in five provinces – Kasaï Occidental, Kasaï Oriental and Equateur (west), Maniema (east), and Katanga (south-east) – with the support of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
In several areas surveyed, global acute malnutrition rates are above the 10 per cent threshold for intervention and also in some cases above the emergency threshold of 15 per cent, according to a news release issued by WFP.Fifty-two out of the 90 territories surveyed revealed global acute malnutrition rates above 10 per cent
The agency noted that while the causes behind such high malnutrition rates are many and vary across territories, the main ones are weak access – or lack of access – to healthcare and to drinkable water, poor access of households to good quality food, poor feeding practices of infants, young children and women, as well as a lack of tools and seeds for agriculture.
These conditions have been exacerbated by conflict, high food prices and the global financial crisis which has shaken the mining industry in the west and south-east of the vast African nation.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34297&Cr=&Cr1=
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