MSF says half of displaced children in southwest Somalia acutely malnourished

NAIROBI: Doctors Without Borders warned Tuesday that half of all children in displacement sites in southwest Somalia are acutely malnourished, the situation exacerbated by funding cuts and drought.

In June UN-backed experts estimated that almost a third of Somalis faced food insecurity, as the country — long wracked by insecurity and now seeing political turmoil — saw one of its worst droughts in years.

Since January the international medical charity MSF has screened more than 21,000 children under five in Baidoa, finding “acute malnutrition levels of around 50 percent.”

A July survey of 888 households across 14 displacement sites in southwestern Baidoa, found only two percent of families could afford three daily meals.

“It’s not an understatement when I say that a severe humanitarian emergency is unfolding right now in Baidoa,” Mitchell Sangma, MSF medical coordinator, told a press conference in Kenyan capital Nairobi.