Nairobi – The UN on Friday announced that five million Somalis do not have enough food, with 1.1 million of them Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) housed in various camps across the country.
It also revealed in Nairobi that the five million people including over 300,000 children under five years of age who were acutely malnourished,had
more than 50,000 who were severely malnourished.
Doctor Lul Mohamud-Mohamed, a medical practitioner in the largest public hospital in Somalia, Banaadir Hospital, warned that the situation was getting worse for children living in IDP camps.
She said that the impact of the food crisis was seriously impeding the growth and development of children, at the same time denying them the chance to education.
She added that “we are recording deaths and serious medical conditions as a result of malnutrition among children from displaced people’s camps. For example, out of 600 children the hospital receives monthly, 25 per cent of them are malnourished.’’
She noted that most of the children under the age of five were mostly affected, stressing that there was urgent need to protect the children from long-term conditions which could affect them much more in life.
Mohamed, who heads the children’s department at the hospital, say the lack of food has denied most children access to education since most of them have to look for food at the expense of education.
“A large number of children in the IDP camps do not attend school and are forced to work alongside their parents, a development which risks the lives of the children more.
(Edited by Hawa Lawal/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu)