Hounde, Jul 28: Coronavirus and its restrictions are pushing already hungry communities over the edge, killing an estimated 10,000 more young children a month as meager farms are cut off from markets and villages are isolated from food and medical aid, the United Nations warned Monday.
In the call to action shared with The Associated Press ahead of publication, four UN agencies warned that growing malnutrition would have long-term consequences, transforming individual tragedies into a generational catastrophe.
Hunger is already stalking Haboue Solange Boue, an infant from Burkina Faso who lost half her former body weight of 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms) in just a month. Coronavirus restrictions closed the markets, and her family sold fewer vegetables. Her mother was too malnourished to nurse.
“My child,” Danssanin Lanizou whispered, choking back tears as she unwrapped a blanket to reveal her baby's protruding ribs.
More than 550,000 additional children each month are being struck by what is called wasting, according to the UN — malnutrition that manifests in spindly limbs and distended bellies. Over a year, that's up 6.7 million from last year's total of 47 million. Wasting and stunting can permanently damage children physically and mentally.
“The food security effects of the COVID crisis are going to reflect many years from now,” said Dr. Francesco Branca, the WHO head of nutrition. “There is going to be a societal effect.”
From Latin America to South Asia to sub-Saharan Africa, more poor families than ever are staring down a future without enough food.
In April, World Food Program head David Beasley warned that the coronavirus economy would cause global famines “of biblical proportions” this year. There are different stages of what is known as food insecurity; famine is officially declared when, along with other measures, 30% of the population suffers from wasting.
The World Food Program estimated in February that one Venezuelan in three was already going hungry, as inflation rendered salaries nearly worthless and forced millions to flee abroad. Then the virus arrived.
“Every day we receive a malnourished child,” said Dr. Francisco Nieto, who works in a hospital in the border state of Tachira.
In May, Nieto recalled, after two months of quarantine, 18-month-old twins arrived with bodies bloated from malnutrition. The children's mother was jobless and living with her own mother. She told the doctor she fed them only a simple drink made with boiled bananas.
“Not even a cracker? Some chicken?” he asked.
“Nothing,” the children's grandmother responded. By the time the doctor saw them, it was too late: One boy died eight days later.
The leaders of four international agencies — the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization — have called for at least dollar 2.4 billion immediately to address global hunger.
But even more than lack of money, restrictions on movement have prevented families from seeking treatment, said Victor Aguayo, the head of UNICEF's nutrition program.
“By having schools closed, by having primary health care services disrupted, by having nutritional programs dysfunctional, we are also creating harm,” Aguayo said. He cited as an example the near-global suspension of Vitamin A supplements, which are a crucial way to bolster developing immune systems.
In Afghanistan, movement restrictions prevent families from bringing their malnourished children to hospitals for food and aid just when they need it most. The Indira Gandhi hospital in the capital, Kabul, has seen only three or four malnourished children, said specialist Nematullah Amiri. Last year, there were 10 times as many.
Because the children don't come in, there's no way to know for certain the scale of the problem, but a recent study by Johns Hopkins University indicated an additional 13,000 Afghans younger than 5 could die.
Afghanistan is now in a red zone of hunger, with severe childhood malnutrition spiking from 690,000 in January to 780,000 — a 13% increase, according to UNICEF.
In Yemen, restrictions on movement have blocked aid distribution, along with the stalling of salaries and price hikes. The Arab world's poorest country is suffering further from a fall in remittances and a drop in funding from humanitarian agencies.
Yemen is now on the brink of famine, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which uses surveys, satellite data and weather mapping to pinpoint places most in need.
Some of the worst hunger still occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. In Sudan, 9.6 million people live from one meal to the next — a 65% increase from the same time last year.
Lockdowns across Sudanese provinces, as around the world, have dried up work and incomes for millions. With inflation hitting 136%, prices for basic goods have more than tripled.
“It has never been easy but now we are starving, eating grass, weeds, just plants from the earth,” said Ibrahim Youssef, director of the Kalma camp for internally displaced people in war-ravaged south Darfur.
Adam Haroun, an official in the Krinding camp in west Darfur, recorded nine deaths linked with malnutrition, otherwise a rare occurrence, over the past two months — five newborns and four older adults, he said.
Before the pandemic and lockdown, the Abdullah family ate three meals a day, sometimes with bread, or they'd add butter to porridge. Now they are down to just one meal of “millet porridge” — water mixed with grain. Zakaria Yehia Abdullah, a farmer now at Krinding, said the hunger is showing “in my children's faces.”
“I don't have the basics I need to survive,” said the 67-year-old, who who hasn't worked the fields since April. “That means the 10 people counting on me can't survive either.”
The miscreants came to know that the ill-fated cow trafficker was also an activist of Bhartiya Janata Party only after the attack.
Comments
agar ye sabh bandh karna hai tho ek upay hai mera pass govt ek law banana hai agar koi gomatha ko kate tho usko 3 year's jail aur 2 lakh jarimana hona cahiya aur uska meat bechne wale ko 1 year jail aur 75 thousand jarimana hona cahiye. aur yeh sab ek special team with 100% is ki dhekbaal keliye form karna cahiye desh ke har village mein iska ek admi hona cahiye. tab yeh sab nahi hoga mein 100% guarantee ke saath keh saktha hu. jai bharat matha vande mataram.
Gau rakshak becames manau bhakshak
Now it's time to counter attack the fake protectors of gau
Basically these VHP and bajrangi dal morons want cows to walk by themselves to their new owners house. If you take them by truck then they will kill you.
I'm done trying to talk sense about this new brand of religious gundagardi.
hell with this feku gau rakshaks
if this holy animal & holy meat is creating too much of uneasiness in our country please shift to a different place/country, where there are no gau bakshaks....only rakshaks
let them celebrate. they killed a human being & saved the cow
now let them compensate the family of diseased with the cows. he may be the bread earner for his family. due their own goondaism policy killed own guy.
Hindus are spread all around the world. You name a country, they are there. But, do they dare to talk about GauMatha in any country other than India? All their dramas are limited to Indian boundaries. Bahar Dum Nahin nikaltha Hain.
Dear Viren,
Now only God can save your 17 GOW BHAKSHAKS... Shame on you for supporting these terrorists. Family of Praveen poojary will never get their lost Son. Either show your sympathy or get the hell out of here.
Readers are not interested to read your F**king comments.
Hope ABVP will come to street and protest against Killers..!
Viren, you are an worthless, inhuman creature of this entire world....in European countries millions of tons of meat being eaten everyday basis...thousands of butchers serving over there...because of it is their fundamental right to eat what they like...nobody is coming in between it....If you got a guts go and shout and stop them from eating cow meat...they will f**k you...I am sure....
Ha ha Viren.....the guy looked like a Muslim in his bead style...... as stupid they are...they killed him...ha ha....
Don't comment and mock at yourself dear....
This proves that Bajrang Dal, VHP members or other gau rakshaks are not anti-Muslims. they are just protecting the cows. But attacking these helpless pawns not enough. Attack the real anti-national butchers and eliminate them.
Kotian brothers being gow-rakhshak, became gow- bakshak.
Enjoying beef....!
Now Congress/JDS/PFI/SDPI/CPI(M) should stage a massive protest to prove that BJP does not care its own worker's murder if the killer is a Bajrangi
Will BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa give a call for a statewide bandh demanding ban on VHP and BD in protest of killing of his party worker?
Chaddi dirty mindset never change
If they wear pant or nighty!
Unnecessary loss of life.
Remove the Beef ban then there will be no gau rakshaks and there will be no danger to anybody.Is there no justice in this country. Quick action should be taken against the guilty.
Let people eat what they want.
Why blame the State government when this policy being implemented by Centre.
i request govt to give order to police Shoot on Sight for all activists for defame our nation by doing such a things. please this is the best solution for everything. we dont want any self called protector. we all brothers and sisters want to live in peace.
what are mr. parameshwarayya and siddaramayya doing now. they must curb these goondas; we have been listening only warning warning warning but no action till now. now we lost one more life in the hands of rss goondas. now where is abvp and vhp to protest this murder.
now our police make a case against the dead man leaving their 2nd team members of rss.
OH my God......his face appearance cheated the BJP goons..... Sorry Naren, wrong number ....
bajrangdal what are u doing. where are u taking us. killing is easy task for bajrangis now a days.
Bajrangdal and VHP whatever you are doing now is totally wrong. its down grading your mother land. please understand and work to bring good out of india.
because of 1% of hindus we all 99% of hindus are suffering.,
Does Go Maata require human protection if cow is God? Does GO Maata appointed only Sanghis from human to protect her? Does Go Maata require human sacrifices? Does she require human blood only from particular community like Muslims, Dalits, Billawas, Lower caste etc ..??
this is really shocking., i request all hindu brothers to stop the brutality. do something for the nation. this wont lift india to reach the development high.
they cut their own hand, its a lesson for all cow protector.
Modi congratulates RIO medalist Sakshi Mallik along with Udupi's RIOT sanghis who killed cow transporter...!
RIP Martyr Praveen Poojary .... Quick recovery for Akshaya Devadiga.... BJP is tasting its own medicines .....what goes around, will come around.... Let all these arrested 17 persons and other back the scene people are lodged in Andamans for 10 years, then our coastal districts will have peace for EVER.....
have this bajrangdal activists lost their mind? killing people for cow its not justified, if your cow matha has so much power then let her punish the slaughters.
Shocking. really dont understand whether to celebrate or mourn. RIP..
Shun Hindutva, shun hatred or get ready for more violence in future.
Government should ban these two ugly terrorists groups immediately....they are the main reason for creating unrest and unpleasant condition around South Canara.....
Good that Muslims stop eating beef which is unhealthy....
I knew this will definitely happen one day. Bajrangi terrorists have also been imparted arms training... If same situation continues.. wait and watch what will happen in future.
Boda seera. All culprits should be hanged in public.
Hindus who R pro cheddi should start thinking and stop relying on the information fed by the RSS...
RSS teaching is from Zionist and they have phd in deception through out the world... They will not care if u work hard for them or not.. in the end YOU will suffer...
When U have no knowledge of YOUR RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES , U guys are fooled to believe what YOU are doing now...
WAKE UP guys and study your scriptures and compare it with other religion also ... All the EVIL you are doing is turning on YOU itself. Its not late... THINK individually and start understanding the cheddi ideology which is dumping your own brothers into HELL.
Add new comment