Staff Writer |Over 33 000 children under the age of 5 years are stunted and urgently need malnutrition treatment, UNICEF has said.
The stunting has been caused by the severe drought which Zimbabwe has experienced during the 2015-2016 rain season. “In Zimbabwe, newly released figures show that the population in need of assistance has increased from 2.8 million in January to 4 million in July. Of these, 1.9 million are children under the age of 18 while 33,000 children under the age of five will require treatment for severe acute malnutrition,” , acting UNICEF Representative, Jane Muita she said Friday.
She said out of a total appeal of $ 21.8 million, for Zimbabwe they had requested for from development partners they only got $ 1 million.
“Data is already showing a worsening of the situation for children but inadequate funding is limiting the ability to respond with critical life-saving interventions,” she said.
“We need to use the current window to scale up efforts that will prevent children from sliding even further into malnutrition and death. If we fail to do this, we will be dealing with an even worse crisis towards the end of the year.”