26.5 Million Children At Risk Due To Disease In Eastern, South Africa, Unicef

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said the lives some 26.5 million children were at risk as one of the strongest El Niño events on record brought malnutrition, water shortages, and disease to ten countries in eastern and southern Africa.

UNICEF said children in those regions were finding it difficult to remain in school due to hunger and lack of water and faced protection risks as their families and communities moved in search of work, food, water, and grazing land for animals. In a study of the effects of El Niño on the regions, UNICEF found that more than one million children were in need of treatment for severe acute malnutrition. The Fund added that water shortages remained a key concern, with many health facilities and schools in critical need of improved water supplies and sanitation facilities to continue to provide services.

UNICEF said despite government and aid agencies responding since 2015, the scale of the crisis has surpassed the coping capacities of communities and the resources of the governments in the region. The Fund said it still needed $127 million of its $226 million goal to provide a comprehensive emergency response to the crisis that was likely to continue well into 2017.

In the first months of 2016, UNICEF said it had reached 155,000 children with treatment for severe acute malnutrition; 2.69 million people with clean water; 82,000 children with protection services; and 100,000 people with HIV education and services.

El Niño is the term used to describe the warming of the central to eastern tropical Pacific that occurs on average every three to seven years. It raises sea surface temperatures and impacts weather systems around the globe so that some places receive more rain while others receive none at all, often in a reversal of their usual weather pattern.    


DESCRIPTION
STORY: UNICEF / EL NINO CHILDREN
TRT: 1:15
SOURCE: UNIFEED-FILE
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS

DATELINE: FILE
SHOTLIST
FILE- WFP - 7 MAY 2016, AROYO, SOUTH SUDAN

1. Wide shot, WFP food distribution point
2. Pan right, from malnourished children to WFP Nutritionist
3. Various shots, children’s arms being measured
4. Various shots, woman’s arm being measured

FILE – UNICEF - 26 MARCH 2016, HABASWEYN, SOMALILAND, SOMALIA

5. Close up, cracked earth
6. Wide shot, dust blowing up by the wind
7. Close up, dead donkey
8. Med shot, remains of dead goat

FILE – UNICEF - 30 MARCH 2016, QULUJEED, SOMALILAND, SOMALIA

9. Various shots, women and children displaced by drought

FILE – OCHA - 3 FEBRUARY 2016, ULA ARBA, ETHIOPIA

10. Various shots, people and cattle at a water well
11. Close up, child’s face
12. Wide shot, child running through dry field