Rohingya children at risk of life-threatening malnutrition: UNICEF
Rohingya children at refugee camps in Bangladesh suffer severe malnutrition, according to an assessment of UNICEF.
The preliminary data of the nutrition assessment shows a 7.5 per cent prevalence of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition - a rate double that was seen among Rohingya child refugees in May 2017, says a press release of UNICEF on Friday.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) conducted the assessment last week at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.
“The Rohingya children in the camp - who have survived horrors in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state and a dangerous journey here - are already caught up in a catastrophe,” said UNICEF Bangladesh representative Edouard Beigbeder.
“Those with severe malnutrition are now at risk of dying from an entirely preventable and treatable cause.”
Malnutrition rates among children in northern Rakhine state were already above emergency thresholds. The condition of these children has further deteriorated due to the long journey across the border and the conditions in the camps.
Around 26,000 people now live in the Kutupalong camp faced with an acute shortage of food and water, unsanitary conditions and high rates of diarrhoea and respiratory infections. Cases of measles have been reported.
The Kutupalong nutrition assessment, conducted between 22-28 October, surveyed 405 households including families who arrived there both before and after violence escalated in northern Rakhine on 25 August.
Two additional assessments will be conducted in other sites in November, including one at a makeshift settlement.
The findings from the three assessments will update the projected number of children expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition over the next few months, and guide the emergency response.
UNICEF and partners are treating over 2,000 acutely malnourished children at 15 treatment centres, with six additional centres currently being set up.
UNICEF is also working with health partners to identify and treat diarrhoea and pneumonia, and will be conducting mass vaccination and nutrition screening campaigns this month.
“The humanitarian community needs to be able to do far more to treat and protect these extremely vulnerable children,” the UNICEF representative said.
Beigbeder also said, “For that we need far more attention to the crisis, and far more resources for the response. These children need help right now.”