2.9 million malnourished in Darfur, mostly children: WFP

On the occasion of the World Food Day, today, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) recommends the highlighting the power of nutrition to transform individuals, societies and economies, and the need to make it central to all development efforts. “Undernourished girls and boys face barriers in health, in school performance and later, in the workplace, which limit their human potential and their capacity to contribute to the societies in which they live,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. “Prioritising nutrition today is an investment in our collective global future.  The investment must involve food, agriculture, health and education systems,” she said. Today more than one in eight people in the world suffers from chronic hunger. Yet even more lack the vitamins and minerals needed to live healthy lives. According to the WFP Sudan Deputy Country Director, Kojo Anyanful, the WFP in Sudan is feeding 3.9 million people of whom 2.9 are in Darfur where malnutrition levels remain high especially among children. In the eastern parts of Sudan the alarmingly highly malnutrition levels are also a huge problem. The 2010 Sudan Household Health Survey shows that of the six million children under the age of five in Sudan, two million are suffering from irreversible chronic malnutrition, while an additional one million children suffer from acute malnutrition.  The theme of this year’s World Food Day is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition.”  File photo by Albert González Farran/UnamidRelated: OCHA boss: Sudan malnutrition rate above emergency threshold (16 August 2013)