The United Nations Children’s Fund said 1.3 million children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition could lose access to treatment over the course of the year – leaving them at heightened risk of death.

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Kitty van der Heijden Palais, made the remarks on Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the global funding crisis at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Friday.

In recent years, international donors have reduced their contributions to UN agencies, including UNICEF.

The situation worsened when the United States, its largest donor, imposed a 90-day suspension on all foreign aid on the first day of President Donald Trump’s return in January.

This decision, along with subsequent orders halting numerous programmes of the United States Agency for International Development worldwide, has put life-saving food and medical aid at risk, disrupting global humanitarian relief efforts.

Heijden said in the last 25 years, there has been significant progress in tackling the global malnutrition crisis for children and since the year 2000, the number of stunted children has decreased by 55 million, or one third.

“In 2024, UNICEF and our partners reached 441 million children under five with services to prevent all forms of malnutrition, while 9.3 million children received treatment for severe wasting and other forms of severe acute malnutrition.

“This progress was made possible through the efforts of governments and the generosity of donors – including those in government, the private sector and philanthropic organisations – whose unwavering support was critical to the prevention and treatment of child malnutrition at a global scale.

“Today, those hard-earned gains are being rolled back because humanitarian and nutrition partners face a different, deepening crisis – namely the sharp decline in funding support for our lifesaving work. But it is more than the quantity of the reductions … the problem is also how they have been made – in some cases, suddenly and without warning, leaving us with no time to mitigate their impact on our programmes for children.


https://punchng.com/1-3-million-children-in-nigeria-ethiopia-at-risk-amid-funding-crisis-unicef/