MALNUTRITION: Ivory Coast, due rebels

MANKONO, Ivory Coast — Eight-month-old Aminata Sanogo weighed little more than a newborn as her mother took the severely malnourished baby to the hospital, traveling past marketplaces piled high with mangos and avocados. By the time they arrived, it was too late.
Aminata died some 20 minutes after arriving at the hospital in this town in northern Ivory Coast. Unlike outbreaks of mass hunger in some other parts of Africa, it wasn’t due to a lack of food in the area.
It was due, in part, to the rebels who set up roadblocks in the bush and extort money, including from farmers bringing their produce to market. Farmers consequently raise their prices to eke out a profit, pushing the cost of many types of food beyond the reach of impoverished families.
Locals say the land here is so fertile that growing food is as simple as dropping a seed on the ground and spitting on it. Yet when the British medical aid group Merlin set up an operation in Ivory Coast’s Worodougou district last June, almost one in 10 children under 5 was suffering from severe malnutrition.
http://blog.taragana.com/health/2010/04/30/children-malnourished-in-ivory-coast-because-of-inflated-food-prices-civil-war-legacy-22341/