One in four children in Afar, Ethiopia malnourished – UNICEF

One out of four children under five years in Afar region of Ethiopia is currently malnourished, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“In the Afar region of Ethiopia, an estimated 1 in 4 children under five is currently malnourished. An alarming situation that UNICEF and its partners are working to address with the invaluable support of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and USAID Ethiopia,” UNICEF Ethiopia twitted on its official page an hour ago.



Reports show that Ethiopia is among those countries with the highest rate of stunting in sub-Saharan Africa. The proportion of underweight children is highest in the age range of 2 to 3 years (34%) and lowest among those under six months of age (10%).

About 29% of children the under age of five are underweight, and 9% are severely underweight in Ethiopia. UNICEF in its latest appeal funding stated severe drought-related needs due to four consecutive failed rainy seasons have led to widespread food insecurity and complete erosion of resilience mechanisms of over 24.1 million people across southern, southwestern and eastern regions in Ethiopia.

UNICEF’s report shows that extreme drought and critical food insecurity coupled with conflict, intercommunal violence and public health emergencies — have significantly worsened the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia and that of over 29.7 million people, including 12.5 million children and 5.2 million people with disabilities across the country.



Fifty-one per cent of all districts in the country are classified as first, second and third tier hotspots. Children face the heaviest — and significantly worsening — burden due to forced school drop-out, child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and gender-based violence (GBV).

UNICEF has revised its appeal to $532.4 million to enable the expansion of lifesaving services and sustainable solutions commensurate with the significant deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia due to drought and the re-escalation of conflict.