The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for immediate humanitarian action amid rising malnutrition, thirst and disease, and warned that millions of lives are at risk in four countries stretching from Africa to the Middle East.
The agency said the recent welcome announcement of an end to famine conditions in South Sudan should not distract from the severe food insecurity that continues to put the lives of millions of children at risk in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
“The crisis is far from over and we must continue to scale up our response and insist on unconditional humanitarian access, otherwise the progress made could be rapidly undone,” said UNICEF Director for Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine, in a press statement.
“There is no room for complacency,” he continued. “While famine has been reversed in South Sudan, the lives of millions of children are still hanging by a thread.”
In North-east Nigeria, Boko Haram violence continues to contribute to large-scale population displacement, limit market activity and restrict normal livelihoods. Around 5.2 million people remain severely food insecure, with 450,000 children expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year. With deteriorating road conditions and flooding making populations harder to reach, the rainy season will further complicate the humanitarian response and raise the risk of water-borne diseases.