Sudan

“Our team were surprised by the situation they found,” said Jeri Westad, Country Director for Medair, who initiated the assessment in association with Save the Children in Southern Sudan (SCiSS). “This is one of the most desperate places we have seen in Southern Sudan.”The late February assessment examined children five years and younger and found that 45.7 percent of them had global acute malnutrition (GAM) and 15.5 percent had severe acute malnutrition. [1] The survey also showed that, in addition to appalling rates of malnutrition, the children were in very poor overall health. “Without an intervention, many of these children will die,” said Ms. Westad. Food and nutritional support are desperately needed in Akobo, which has suffered from lack of rain, insecurity in the area, and five years of crop failures. As a result, Medair and SCiSS are immediately establishing a therapeutic feeding programme that will provide urgent nutritional support and medical care for 800 to 1,000 severely malnourished children in Akobo East County. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) and SCiSS will distribute supplemental food rations for families in need, and International Medical Corps (IMC), which runs the county hospital, will continue to provide care for severely malnourished children. “We are only just entering the start of the hunger gap so we would expect nutrition levels to worsen in the coming months,” said Kate Foster, Director of Programme Development for SCiSS. Akobo has been the site of violent tribal conflicts for the past year, so Medair will closely monitor the security situation throughout the emergency response. “The need to act is so strong that we must take immediate action on behalf of these children,” said Ms. Westad. “It’s not too late for us to make a major life-saving impact.” [1] Calculated using weight-for-height z-scores based on WHO’s 2006 Growth Standards.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/220382/4b76b899903e37a05ead4db852551314.htm