More than 4,000 cases of malnourished children were recorded in Yei County in South Sudan’s Yei River State, a leading civil society organization said.
Mawa George Lazarus, Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Rehabilitation and Development organization (CEFORD), said his organization recorded 400 cases of children with acute malnutrition and 3,700 others with moderate cases of malnutrition at Yei Civil Hospital and residential areas.
He pointed out that the cases of malnutrition are on rise in Yei River County, while calling on health organizations to provide assistance to the children so as to save the future of South Sudan.
“The need is huge, and therefore we need to encourage all partners to get on board to save lives because these children are the future of this country,” said Mawa.
“We have already seen many children becoming malnourished because of lack of nutritious food, from our assessment, we have discovered that there were 400 children with acute malnutrition cases and 3,700 children recorded by the end of last year,” he added.
The executive director attributed the rising cases of malnutrition to rampant insecurity, massive displacement of families and lack of food due to increasing prices of commodities at the market.
Mawa noted that his organization managed to secure about 5,000 kilograms of soya beans and rice from a Sweden donor to help to the needy children for three months.
“Going without food affects their health growth and there are rising cases of malnutrition in Yei, therefore we are going to ensure that we deliver to them 5,000 kilograms of food which is a combination of soya beans and rice,” he said.
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