UNICEF Fears a Lost Generation In The Face of Food Crisis

The boss of UN’s child agency made this revelation in a statement released March 16 , 2012 at the Agency’s regional office in Dakar, Senegal.

UNICEF is warning that there is little time left to stave off disaster facing more than a million age below five in the Sahel region of Africa. For UNICEF this will be marked by rising numbers of children in the feeding centers who will need lifesaving treatment.

Gressy said even in the best scenario, “we are expecting more than a million children suffering from severe and acute malnutrition to enter centers over the next six months”.

He warned that more extreme conditions could see the number rise around 1.5 million, and funding is still not coming at the rate required to prepare properly.

The release continues to indicate that at the moment, the agency has received US$24 million dollars against an emergency appeal of USA $ 119 million for 2012.

Governments, UNICEF, other UN agencies and international aid organisations are responding to crisis caused by poor rain fall and failed harvest affecting an estimated 10 million people in the areas of Chad, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, northern Nigeria, northern Cameroon, and parts of the north of Senegal. The conflict in Mali, which has led to the people fleeing their homes, has increased demand for emergency assistance not only there, but in the neighboring countries that have received refugees.

The regional director continued to say that the fighting in Mali, as well as the acute insecurity in northern Nigeria and elsewhere, are complicating the aid operations. Without a good emergency response and a sustained effort to reduce risk in the medium to long term an entire generation faces a future of dependency, poverty and threaten survival, the release says.