UNICEF Calls More Than Half A Million Small Children In Somalia Lack Of Acute Nutrition

Illustration of Somalian children. (Wikimedia Commons/SSGT CHURLES REMARD)

JAKARTA - The number of small children in Somalia facing severe acute malnutrition (SAM) has increased to more than half a million, a higher rate than 2011 hunger in which tens of thousands of children died, the UN banda said on Tuesday.

"We have more than half a million children facing preventable deaths. This is a delayed nightmare," said James Elder, UN children's agency spokeswoman for UNICEF at a news conference in Geneva, saying this rate has never been seen in any country this century.

The United Nations has warned that parts of Somalia will be hit by starvation in the coming months, as the Horn of Africa faces a failed rainy season for the fifth time in a row.

Somali's hunger in 2011 claimed more than a quarter of a million lives, about half of which were children.

There are more than 513,000 children under the age of five who are expected to suffer from SAM, said Elder, meaning they are more likely to die from diseases such asembidles, malaria and selloffs spreading across the country.

That represents a 33 percent increase in children at risk since June.

UNICEF said last week more than 700 children had died in nutrition centers across the country.

Elder added, many of these centers are at their maximum capacity and babies are receiving treatment on the floor.

"You have children who are critically ill who, without treatment, can die within hours."