Critical Malnutrition in Niger

ROME - Apr 21/05 - SNS -- The United Nations World Food Programme believes roughly 350,000 children under five years-old in the West African state of Niger could be suffering from malnutrition.

The claim is based on a survey of 1,800 children between 6 and 59 months of age in Zinder and Maradi. They had a global rate for wasting of 13.4% of which 2.7% of cases in Zinder and 2.2% in Maradi are severe.

An extrapolation of these results indicates that as many as 135,700 children under five across the two regions are suffering from malnutrition, with 24,700 of them severe cases in need of urgent medical and nutritional assistance. These figures are in line with the skyrocketing admission numbers observed in recent months at a therapeutic feeding center run by Médecins sans Frontières in the Maradi region.

The alarming numbers underline the critical need for intervention to tackle what has become an endemic issue in Niger. Furthermore, following a season of poor rains, coupled with the impact of the worst locust invasion in 15 years, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. Niger is facing a food deficit of nearly a quarter of a million metric tons this year.

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