By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BANGUI, Central African Republic – According to the UN Children’s Fund, 700,000 Central African Republic children under the age of five are suffering from severe malnutrition.

“In both the conflict-affected north and the more stable south, almost 700,000 children under five are living below acceptable standards, and now many are moving toward the outer edge of survival.  The situation of children in the south is of particular concern due to the rapidly deteriorating nutritional status in tandem with an increasingly bleak funding outlook,” said UNICEF’s acting representative in CAR Jeremy Hopkins.

Three provinces – Mambere Kadei, Sangha Mbaere, and Lobaye – were preliminarily assessed.  An estimated 16,710 children there are at risk.  The assessment found that 16 percent of children under five are acutely malnourished and 6.6 percent are severely acutely malnourished.

This comes on top of already high rates of malnutrition where more than one in ten children aged between 6 and 59 months suffers from global acute malnutrition and 2.3 percent suffer from severe acute malnutrition.  These alarming rates are attributed to devastating poverty, the ongoing conflict and lack of security, and the loss of income due to the decline in diamond mining affected by the global economic downturn.

According to UNICEF, this is “far above the emergency thresholds of two per cent for severe acute malnutrition.”  The risk of death is nine times higher for severely malnourished children.

UNICEF has appealed to donors for $1.5 million.  The agency would like to use the funding for lifesaving supplies, food, and drugs.  In addition, UNICEF wants to conduct a national nutritional survey and use some of the money to train community health workers in early detection for compromised nutritional status.

“These children’s lives, their ability to learn, to earn, and to lead productive lives is being stunted by this tragic crisis,” said Hopkins. “These children could be leading normal lives. We must try harder to fulfill their rights.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – 700,000 Children Malnourished in Central African Republic: UN – 11 August 2009

UNICEF – Malnutrition Among Children in Southern CAR Alarming – 11 August 2009

UN News Centre – UN Seeks $1.5 Million to Tackle Rising Malnutrition Among Central African Children – 11 August 2009

VOA – Children Acutely Malnourished in Central African Republic – 11 August 2009