UNICEF

7-month-old Kumbaba is carried by his mother, Oumou Sy, and accompanied by a health worker at the UNICEF-supported nutrition centre in Kaédi Hospital, in the city of Kaédi in the southern Gorgol Region of Mauritania. Kumbaba, who is severely malnourished, is being taken to be weighed and measured. His mother left his two siblings behind in their rural village of Bir Baraka in order to bring him to the health facility for treatment.

In May 2012, Mauritania is one of eight countries in the Sahel region facing a nutrition crisis that now affects over 15 million people, with more than 1 million under-five children at risk of dying from nutrition-related illnesses. The regional nutrition crisis is the result of repeated drought-related food shortages, from which people have had insufficient time to recover before being again affected. In Mauritania, more than 700,000 people (nearly 25 per cent of households), including 110,000 children under age five, are food insecure. Some 35,000 children are acutely malnourished, numbers which are expected to rise to 90,000 by the end of the year. Mauritania has also been affected by the influx of more than 64,000 refugees – mostly children and women – fleeing ongoing fighting in neighbouring Mali. Working with the Government and other partners, UNICEF nutrition support includes screenings to identify malnourished children and ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition throughout the country. UNICEF assistance in refugee camps and host communities includes: the provision of safe water and sanitation equipment and supplies; support for measles vaccinations and other health efforts; and the provision of education and recreation supplies.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0465/Mia Brandt

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