Acute malnutrition surges in Somalia children: UNICEF

Some 1.4 million children in drought-hit Somalia are projected to suffer acute malnutrition this year, 50 percent more than estimated in January, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday.

The new figure includes more than 275,000 children potentially facing a life-threatening severe acute form of malnutrition, who are nine times more likely to die of cholera or measles, UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said.

"The combination is deadly for children," Mercado told a Geneva news briefing on return from the central city of Baidoa. "It can spread like fire in congested displacement camps."
 [dailystar.com.lb/Reuters]
 2/5/17
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