Chronic malnutrition harms Côte d’Ivoire’s north

IRIN: Forty percent of Ivoirian children in the northern region are chronically malnourished, the country’s highest rate, which has not fallen for the past six years. The effects of a drawn-out conflict, desertion by aid groups and inadequate medical staff have contributed to the situation. Food scarcity here is often due to harsh weather and high food costs.

The average rate of chronic malnutrition nationally is not much lower though, at 30 percent. Côte d’Ivoire’s northern region is mostly arid and on the fringes of the Sahel. Malnutrition levels here compare to Niger’s 40 percent and are slightly higher than Burkina Faso’s 34 percent.

The 2002-2009 political turmoil that split Côte d’Ivoire into rebel-held north and government-controlled south devastated public services in the in the north. Under rebel rule, private firms also fled, while the economy tumbled and insecurity rose. The region was, however, spared much of the violence sparked by the 2010 election dispute.

“The crisis significantly weakened the already precarious food security levels in this part of the country. Population displacements disrupted agricultural activities from 2002 to 2005,” said Bernard Kouamé, a nutrition expert based in the commercial capital Abidjan.

“Health infrastructure was degraded. The absence of health personnel for months on end and the fracturing of the health system greatly affected access to health services. The country has not totally recovered from these problems,” he said....

Looking beyond food for causes of Cameroon’s malnutrition

IRIN: ...Many Cameroonians know little about malnutrition, and the condition is not properly addressed as a public health problem, health experts say. Many see malnutrition only as a problem of insufficient food, and are perplexed that the ailment abounds in a country with strong agricultural production - a view that overlooks unequal food distribution and access in the country as well as other factors that contribute to the illness.

Severe acute malnutrition is highest in the arid Far North and North regions, but it is also high in Adamaoua and the East regions. And chronic malnutrition afflicts children in seven of Cameroon’s 10 regions. “This is the hidden face of Cameroon,” said Ines Lezama, a nutrition specialist with UNICEF, referring to chronic malnutrition, which has affected 1.4 million Cameroonian children in 2013.

...“It is a problem of education, culture. It’s like an insult when you tell somebody that their child is malnourished. Yet this is a health problem like any other,” said Georges Okala, a nutrition specialist with Cameroon’s Ministry of Health. “It is important that parents understand that when their child is underweight and not growing normally, there is a problem, and they should know what is causing that problem.”

Malnutrition is responsible for 38 percent of deaths among children under age five in Cameroon, and one out of three children is stunted. Forty-four percent of chronically malnourished children in the 11-member Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) are in Cameroon, according to UNICEF....

Market in Abong-Mbang, East Province, Cameroon. Shot by Amcaja, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

Drought worsens child malnutrition in Cameroon

Elias Ntungwe Ngalame in AlertNet by the Thomson Reuters Foundation: Prolonged drought in northern Cameroon, an aspect of the changing climate that is affecting the whole Sahel region, has reduced food output, pushed up prices and increased the severity and prevalence of malnutrition among children, experts say.

During a visit to north Cameroon’s Garoua district by the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) early this month, women and health officials at the Lamudam village health unit said local people had yet to recover from the drought-driven Sahel food crisis of 2012 and levels of malnutrition were alarming.

“We receive cases of child malnutrition in this health centre regularly,” said Issa Houre, who runs the unit. “In January this year, for example, we had 33 cases and in May (there were) 49, and this is quite high in a small community of about 1,500 inhabitants.”

...Njakoi Henry, former country director of Heifer Project International Cameroon, told Thomson Reuters Foundation in Yaounde that rains in the north “are now shorter and less frequent”, adding that “pasture land is turning into desert”. “This is changing the way of life for the people in this region and many cannot feed themselves and their children… They need support to adapt and increase their resilience," he said....

Children fending for themselves in Cameroon, shot by Sodeit, public domain