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Looming famine threatens children’s lives in South Sudan, Nigeria, Yemen and Somalia
by Action Against Hunger
 
Feb 24, 2017
 
More than one million children are at imminent risk of dying from life-threatening malnutrition.
 
‘Conflict, acute food shortages, disease and widespread displacement have led to unprecedented levels of child hunger in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Famine has recently been declared in parts of Unity state in the northern central part of South Sudan - the first time famine to be declared anywhere in the world since the 2011 crisis in the Horn of Africa.
 
But South Sudan is not the only country facing catastrophe. Children in Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria are at risk of famine too.
 
“The lives of millions of young children are hanging in the balance,” said Jean Michel Grand, Executive Director for Action Against Hunger. “Many of them will not reach their fifth birthday. Our immediate priority today is to save lives. But needs are immense and, in many of the affected areas, we have reached a deadly tipping point. Humanitarian efforts must be scaled up immediately to help children survive. We must prevent another catastrophe.”
 
Preventable hunger threatens lives
 
South Sudan has already plunged into a preventable hunger catastrophe, with 100,000 people facing famine in Unity State. Nearly 1 in two people – 4.9 million people - are in urgent need of food assistance whilst an estimated 1 million people in other parts of South Sudan are on the brink of famine. Political upheaval and ongoing conflict - combined with widespread insecurity, inflation, food deficits and an unstable economy - have contributed to this spiraling humanitarian emergency.
 
In Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, an estimated 540,000 young children are at risk of dying from hunger this year. The conflict between security forces and Boko Haram in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, marked by extreme violence against civilians, has had a devastating impact on the lives of innocent children and their families, leading to widespread displacement, violations of international humanitairan law and an escalating humanitarian crisis.
 
In Somalia, half of the population is estimated to be in urgent need of humanitarian assistance as they struggle to survive with limited access to health facilities, food and water. Children are bearing the brunt of the situation: an estimated 363,000 malnourished children are in danger unless they receive immediate life-saving treatment. Just six years after a devastating famine in the region claimed the lives of an estimated 250,000 people, another man-made disaster catastrophe looms.
 
In Yemen, an estimated 3.2 million people have been internally displaced since the conflict escalated - mainly women and children. 14.1 million Yemenis do not know where their next meal will come from. In Hodeidah governate alone, a shocking one in three children suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
 
Time is running out to save lives
 
Action Against Hunger teams are present in all four countries, providing lifesaving treatment for malnourished children and urgent access to food and water for their families. Our multisector emergency teams are responding, supporting emergency assessments and lifesaving humanitarian action where it is most needed.
 
Where we and partner organisations have access, we can and are saving lives.
 
But without political solutions and safe, unconditional access to populations in need, suffering will increase and more children will die.
 
Humanitarian workers face tremendous challenges in reaching malnourished children whose lives depend on urgent treatment and accessing sufficient funding to scale up programmes. In total breach of international humanitarian law, people are denied the lifesaving assistance they depend on for their survival.
 
“Famines are manmade. The warning signs are impossible to miss. The world shares a collective responsibility to take action today to prevent people from sliding even deeper into tragedy. The time to act is now: we cannot deny children a future,” said Mr Grand.
 
Whether we call the situation a famine or not, today children in Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria are at risk of dying from hunger. As a non-political and neutral humanitarian organisation, we will continue to help people according to their needs and to provide aid without any discrimination of race, religion or ethnic origin. The time to act is now: we cannot fail innocent children.
 
What is a famine?
 
Famine is the last stage in a process of severe deterioration in the food security situation. It is declared when certain conditions occur, including: 20 per cent of the population has fewer than 2,100 kilocalories of food a day; Acute malnutrition affects more than 30 per cent of children; There are two deaths per 10,000 people, or four deaths per 10,000 children every day.
 
The classification system was created by the UN in 2005 to objectively classify urgent need to help allocate resources. It uses information from surveys conducted by the UN and aid agencies like Action Against Hunger who are operating in affected areas.


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Respect for the principle of humanity is the single best way to reduce suffering in war
by Yves Daccord
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
 
As the spectre of famine looms over several countries in Africa and the Middle East – with many millions of people suffering severe food insecurity and increasing numbers facing starvation – alarm bells are warning of a humanitarian mega-crisis unprecedented in recent history.
 
While the situations in the four countries primarily affected – South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen – are all distinct, the overall scale of acute humanitarian needs in different places at the same time is immense.
 
This appalling scenario forces some hard, albeit obvious, questions. Why does it take the declaration of “famine” and media images of people starving to death to wake the international community up to the dreadful suffering that has been unfolding in these countries for many years already, and that humanitarian organisations have for the most part been struggling to alleviate? Why is this happening at all? Moreover, what, if anything, can be done about it?
 
The truth is that these tragic situations are all, in differing degrees, man-made and all are to a large extent preventable.
 
The main cause of hunger – and of wider humanitarian need – in all four countries is protracted (and intractable) armed conflict.
 
All are characterised by asymmetric warring parties, particularly fragmented and multiplying non-state armed groups; by a widespread lack of respect for even the most fundamental rules of international humanitarian law; and by a lack of any viable political solution to end them.
 
In addition, all of these armed conflicts have regional repercussions, which in the case of northern Nigeria are being felt across the entire Lake Chad region.
 
In South Sudan, more than three years of brutal armed conflict has resulted in economic collapse, with large-scale displacement, loss of agriculture and livestock, massive inflation, rising food prices, widespread hunger, and – in areas where specific criteria have been fulfilled – famine.
 
In Somalia, northern Nigeria and Yemen, harsh climate conditions and environmental problems, including cyclical drought, are major factors in the current crises, but not decisive ones. Combined with chronic insecurity and fighting (more than a quarter of a century in the case of Somalia), and extremely constrained humanitarian access, the consequences are however catastrophic.
 
Indeed, severe food insecurity and even famine is nothing new in many of these places. In Nigeria, more than 50 years before the current crisis, images of starving children drew attention to the plight of civilians caught up in the Biafran war. Around one million people died, mostly from famine and disease.
 
In Yemen, decades of recurrent upheaval, drought and chronic impoverishment preceded the current calamitous situation – where two years of intensifying conflict have caused spiralling humanitarian needs including alarming levels of acute malnutrition, especially among children.
 
And in Somalia, memories are still raw of the famine that killed more than a quarter of a million people just six years ago.
 
Surely then, lessons have been learned and a repeat of such tragedies can be avoided?
 
Answers are as obvious as they are challenging. In the absence of political solutions, there is clearly an urgent need not only for donor generosity and more humanitarian aid, but also ensuring that it reaches the people who need it most.
 
This means ensuring better humanitarian access and proximity to the people directly affected, on both sides of frontlines.
 
And this, in turn, means that both military forces and armed groups must meet their legal obligations to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief supplies to all those who need it.
 
The basic message is simple: better respect for the rules of international humanitarian law and for the principle of humanity is the single best way to reduce suffering in war.
 
Strengthening compliance with humanitarian law and preventing violations is therefore a fundamental prerequisite to achieving better protection for people affected by armed conflict.
 
For the ICRC, this entails engaging with all parties to conflict – no matter how challenging this may be – in an effort to gain acceptance and access to people in need.
 
Those needs may differ greatly in each context and the humanitarian response must be adapted accordingly. While humanitarian action is of course vital to save lives and meet short-term needs, the long-term nature of many of today’s wars means it is also increasingly necessary to sustain basic services and infrastructure in fragile environments, and at the same time boost livelihoods and build resilience against shocks.
 
In places at risk of drought and ultimately famine, this may include improving access to clean water, strengthening nutritional programmes as well as hygiene awareness, protecting vital livestock against diseases and providing various forms of economic support.
 
The onus is of course on those who wage war and those who support them to prevent these humanitarian crises from becoming even bigger tragedies, and ultimately to show the political will required to end the conflicts.
 
Responding only when people are already dying of hunger will inevitably be too little, too late.


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