Medical officers have reported growing numbers of cases of malnutrition among children in war-ravaged regions of south-central parts of the country. They are sounding the alarm over a possible repeat of widespread famine.
“This is a major warning…we have already seen the “yellow” signs; we shouldn’t wait until it gets to “red” to witness the 2011 catastrophe again,” Dr Deqo Aden Mohamed, head of Hawo Abdi clinic on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
The hospital, which provides free medical services to displaced people and poor families, has been receiving around 30 children suffering from the effects of severe acute malnutrition each week.
The children, aged between six months and six years, are mostly being brought to the hospital from Lower Shabelle and Bay regions, as well as from IDP camps outside Mogadishu.
These are all areas where medical services are very limited due to high levels of insecurity.
“Initially, we were getting between 10 and 20 children a week, but it’s now growing fast,” Dr Mohamed told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.
She warned the situation could get worse and if preventive actions were not taken immediately may escalate into a repeat of the 2011 drought and famine, in which nearly 250,000 people died.
The hospital’s nutrition department, which can only serve 80 children, is providing nutritious food, milk and drugs to the children. But Dr Mohamed said the children are being moved out of the hospital as soon as they appear to recover to make room for new worse-off arrivals.
Dr Mohamed said no agency has stepped in to fill the gap left by the departure of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which used to provide nutritional feeding and treatment for malnourished children.
