MALNUTRITION: Djibouti

NAIROBI, 5 May 2010 (IRIN) - About half of Djibouti's rural population will need emergency food assistance this year due to the combined effects of drought, livestock losses, unfavourable livestock-to-cereal terms of trade and high staple food prices, according to an assessment by the government and UN agencies. "Most pastoralists had lost a considerable proportion of their livestock [70-80 percent] over the last five years and they suffered from diminished sources of food and income and had exhausted their coping strategies," Peter Smerdon, spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Nairobi, said. "The assessment estimated global acute malnutrition among children under five [in rural areas] at 20 percent - above the emergency threshold of 15 percent."