The United Nations has urged for immediate action to safeguard the most vulnerable children in 15 nations that have been affected hardest by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis.
The request was made in a statement released by five United Nations bodies.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the UN has identified some of the nations most affected by the unprecedented food and nutrition crisis.
Conflicts, climatic shocks, the lingering effects of COVID-19, and growing living costs, according to the statement, are leaving an increasing proportion of children critically hungry.
“This is happening at a time when critical health nutrition and other life-saving services are becoming more difficult to obtain.
“Currently, more than 30 million children in the 15 worst-affected nations suffer from wasting or acute malnutrition and eight million of these children are severely wasted, the deadliest type of undernutrition.
“This is a huge threat to children’s lives and long-term health and development, the consequences of which are felt by people, communities, and countries,” it stated.
It said that the five UN agencies are: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP), and World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the statement, they have advocated for faster action on the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting.
“This is meant to prevent, identify and treat acute malnutrition among children in the worst-affected nations, which include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, the Sudan, and Yemen are among the others.
It stated that the Global Action Plan recognized the need for a multi-sectoral approach and underlined priority initiatives across mother and child nutrition through the food, health, water and sanitation, and social protection sectors.
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