Kenya drought toll climbs to 40
2006-01-04 20:30
Nairobi - The death toll from hunger and related illness in drought-hit northeastern Kenya has risen to at least 40 as more malnourished children perish, say hospital and aid officials on Wednesday, amid new appeals for urgent help to avert a major famine in the region.
They said since the beginning of December, at least 40 people had died as a result of malnutrition in hospitals and outlying nomadic villages in northeastern Kenya, which, along with neighbouring southern Somalia and southeast Ethiopia, had been badly hit by two years of failed rains.
The officials said at least 16 children died at the provincial hospital in Garissa, the biggest referral facility in the Wajir region, about 580km from Nairobi, while more than 24 others died in outlying areas that were hard to access.
8 kids die in hospital
Ahmed Arale, the chief nursing officer in the hospital, said in the last 10 days, eight children died in the hospital.
On Wednesday the Red Cross launched a new appeal for help as the number of at risk people was expected to rise to 2.5 million by next month.
It said: "More deaths are still being reported. The latest being the deaths of eight malnourished children on 2nd January 2006 in Wajir."
Local administrator Paul Chemutut said: "Most of the deaths are due to complications related to malnutrition", adding that many of the severely weakened patients were also suffering from pneumonia, anaemia and malaria among other diseases.
Many kids 'are malnourished'
The Red Cross said hundreds more could die, and appealed for $8.4m to fund its humanitarian operations in 21 of the worst hit districts.
Red Cross medic Asha Mohammed said: "The situation is quite grave. Many children are malnourished and require supplementary feeding."
Farid Abdulkadir, the head of the disaster operations for the Red Cross, said: "Generally, the situation is getting worse and pressure is piling on the weakened people and livestock."
As he spoke, the Kenya Food Security Meeting, an umbrella group comprised of relief organisations, donors and government officials, warned of a "serious food security crisis" due to the lack of rain and UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said immediate action was required to prevent a disaster.
Deteriorating situation
WFP country director Tesema Negash said: "We are sounding the alarm now because of what the early warning indicators are all showing a rapidly deteriorating situation."
"We need immediate action to avoid the loss of people's assets and their lives."
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki had declared the situation a "national disaster" and appealed over Christmas for $100m to fill a shortfall in funding to purchase and distribute food and water.
His government came under fire for its response to the crisis, but insisted it was doing everything it could, and had ordered the military to assist in relief deliveries.