NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday urged for global action to prevent the severe malnourishment of as many as one million children in West and Central Africa's Sahel region.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said "the challenge is great and the window is closing," noting the vast size of the region. "To prevent a wide-scale emergency in the Sahel, UNICEF and our partners in this effort must begin at once to fill the pipeline with life-sustaining supplies to the region before it is too late," Lake stated.
A significant number of children are already suffering from malnutrition in the Sahel, making them extremely vulnerable and susceptible to any reduction in the quantity and nutritional quality of the food they consume.
Lake also underlined the urgency to act before the 'lean season' when food runs out due to inadequate rain or poor harvests, which can start as early as March in some of the countries across the Sahelian belt.
The UNICEF chief pointed out that the best way to treat severe acute malnutrition among children under five is to distribute specially developed ready-to-use therapeutic foods. These foods provide the best chance of survival and recovery for young children.
The biggest challenge, however, is getting sufficient amounts of these critical foods to children as the need is expected to increase further in the coming months. "The children at risk today in the Sahel are not mere statistics by which we may measure the magnitude of a potential humanitarian disaster. They are individual girls and boys, and each has the right to survive, to thrive and to contribute to their societies. We must not fail them," Lake said.
Earlier this month, UNICEF appealed for $65.7 million to respond to the crisis. It is currently distributing emergency stocks in affected countries such as Niger, where an estimated 33,600 children under the age of five are at risk.
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