. Earth Science News .




.
CLIMATE SCIENCE
Malnutrition taking its toll on Somali children
by Staff Writers
Mogadishu (AFP) Sept 6, 2011

Nearly too weak to cry, Masteha Jama Mohamed's three-month-old daughter is barely the length of her forearm, as the severely malnourished baby struggles for survival in famine-hit Somalia.

Mohamed is herself just a teenager: the 16-year-old mother says her baby has been sick ever since she was two weeks old, and now at 2.5 kilogrammes, is still only the weight of a newborn.

But even after reaching Mogadishu's Banadir hospital, she still fears her child might not survive.

"I have not got help since I arrived," said Mohamed wearily, who had been at the hospital for around six hours. "I am afraid that if she remains like this she might die."

Mohamed trekked from Afgoye town -- the world's largest camp for displaced people where famine was declared last month -- into war-torn Mogadishu in a desperate search for help.

Three-quarters of a million people are facing death by starvation in Somalia according the United Nations, who declared Monday that famine had spread to a sixth southern region of the beleaguered Horn of Africa state.

Many children are brought to the hospital in a critical state. Over 100,00 people have fled into Mogadishu in the past two months seeking food or shelter.

"Their immune system is so suppressed that it brings complications -- most of them have parasites and diarrhoea," said Yasmin Hiller, a German nurse, who works in the overcrowded Benadir hospital.

"For the small kids with dehydration, it is very difficult to stabilise them -- often they die because their complications are too many," she added.

The beds are all full with an influx of malnourished children, and some parents sleep on the floor for lack of space.

Even after treatment in hospital, children struggle for survival from a host of other diseases rife in the city, where many live in the ruins of bombed-out buildings or in makeshift shelters of rag and plastic.

"We have no hope...yet we hope to get treatment," Fadumo Mohamed Omar, standing by her emaciated 10-year-old daughter, suffering from malnutrition and epilepsy, lying on a stretcher in the hospital's busy hallway.

"The doctors said they can do nothing for her epilepsy, but can treat the malnutrition," said Ali Mohamed, Omar's neighbour, who accompanied her.

Some 12.4 million people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda, are affected by the worst drought in decades in the region and are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.

But Somalia is the hardest hit. Two-decades of civil war and restrictions on relief groups by Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels have worsened the plight of hundreds of thousands of drought-hit Somalis.

Many farm animals on which the people depended have died, and families rely on handouts in Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous cities.

"I lost all my cattle and crops. We had nothing to survive on, so we left," said Halima Abdi Hussein, who fled the Shebab-controlled Lower Shabelle region.

"Here at least we get some food. We feel safe as long as we get to eat," said 28-year-old Hussein, standing next to her basic plastic shelter home.

The World Food Programme has set up 23 feeding centres in the war-racked city, distributing food to nearly one million people last month.

"It is the probably the most difficult operation we have anywhere in the world," said Barry Came, a WFP spokesman. "It is very hard to get on the ground to monitor what's happening."

Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation




 

.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



CLIMATE SCIENCE
Famine declared in new Somalia region, likely to spread: UN
Nairobi (AFP) Sept 5, 2011
Famine spread to a sixth southern Somali region and will likely extend further in the coming four months with 750,000 people at risk of death, the United Nations said Monday. "Tens of thousands of people have already died, over half of whom are children," according to a statement from the UN's food security analysis team for Somalia, which said the Bay region was now declared a famine zone. ... read more


CLIMATE SCIENCE
Grim search after 31 die in Japan typhoon

Haiti political knot complicates governance: outgoing PM

Reconstruction from quake top priority: Japan PM Noda

Obama tours flooded, storm-hit New Jersey

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Hiding Objects With a Terahertz Invisibility Cloak

To Clear Digital Waste in Computers Think Green

NASA Gives Public New Internet Tool to Explore the Solar System

Cornell physicists capture microscopic origins of thinning and thickening fluids

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Sharks saved from soupy fate set free at sea

Pacific shows climate change a reality: UN chief

Greece to airlift water to Tripoli: foreign ministry

Iran accuses protesters of politicising dying lake: report

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Iceland receives Chinese request for land purchase: ministry

China tycoon makes Iceland environment pledge

Woolly rhino fossil hints at origins of Ice Age giants

Chinese tycoon defends Iceland project

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Chinese haute cuisine comes to Paris

Feeding cows natural plant extracts can reduce dairy farm odors and feed costs

Manipulating plants circadian clock may make all-season crops possible

Protecting wild species may require growing more food on less land

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Katia weakens to category three hurricane: NHC

Depression Lee weakens over US South

US readies flood aid to N. Korea

Grim search after 37 die in Japan typhoon

CLIMATE SCIENCE
One killed in Senegal rebel attack

Nigerian soldiers kill two in reprisal attack on town

Uruguay shanty towns get partial reprieve

Ugandan villagers reel from mudslide tragedy

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Two Brain Halves Just One Perception

40-year follow-up on marshmallow test points to biological basis for delayed gratification

Humans shaped stone axes 1.8 million years ago

Climate change threatens mental health too: study


Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News
.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2011 - Space Media Network. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement