Greetings to everyone on the InformationWar community. It's good to bring to you news from Africa that's associated with high level of climate change.
Have you ever felt hunger or eaten malnutritious meals because of lack of adequate finance to afford good and nutritious meal? How is the climatic condition in the your regions? Lasting, have you lost any loved one to hunger and starvation in the past? These questions brings us closer to the focus of our post this morning and I wish I could proffer solutions that'll be helpful to regions suffering from hunger and starvation.
One of the major killers of children in Africa and other low income countries apart from malaria, is hunger and malnutrition. This is because, the body systems of children are still developing and needs balanced and nutritious meals to build them effectively.
More than half a million people are going hungry in Karamoja, approximately 40 percent of the population of this neglected, long-suffering rural region between South Sudan and Kenya.Source
It crystal clear that the location of this region, which is between Sudan and Kenya, lies in an environment that's devastated by drought and famine, all of which are caused by climatic condition and desertification.
Natural disasters, plagues of locusts and armyworms, and raids by heavily armed cattle thieves have left little to eat.
As food has become ever more scarce, Karamoja’s most vulnerable residents are struggling to survive.Source
With high level of natural disasters in the region and constant raid of homes and farms the resultant effects of food scarcity leading to hunger and starvation.
In Karamoja, one of Uganda’s poorest regions, anxious mothers clutch bone-thin infants in a malnutrition ward, terrified their child could be the next to succumb to starvation.Source
The most affected population of the ongoing hunger strike in Karamoja are the children. Apart from lack of food, most children die because of malnutrition. It should be noted that, it's only a family that have what to eat and money to buy what they want that can now look for a balanced meal to eat. Most people in this region in Uganda are so poor that they can't afford 1 meal per day for their children.
From interviews with medical personnel in the region, one could deduce the level of hardship and suffering of the people in the area.
These are the words of Doctor Sharif Nalibe:
“In three months we have lost more than 25 children under five due to the malnutrition,” said Doctor Sharif Nalibe, the district health officer in Kaabong, one of Karamoja’s worst-hit districts. “And these were the ones under our care, but (who) were brought at the last minute to the hospital. But there are many who die and (are) not reported in the communities.”Source
Most parents are afraid to go out because they believe that before they would come back from their hustling, their children would have died of hunger. This is so pitiable, that parents would watch their children die because of hunger and aren't able help them out of the situation.
One of the incident recorded by Al Jazeera, is about a mother who left 3 of her children to sell firewood, on her arrival she found out that one of them was dead. According to her, the child wasn't sick before she left the house, that she knows that the child died of hunger.
Across the region, about 91,600 children and 9,500 pregnant or breastfeeding women are suffering from acute malnutrition and need treatment, according to the latest assessment by humanitarian agencies.Source
According to the UNICEF, this is the worst cases of malnutrition experienced in Uganda for the past 10 years and it'll get worse as the day goes by.
Source: