ReliefWeb

More than 300mm of rain fell in just 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday – nearly half the average for July – and heavy rain continued on Wednesday and Thursday. Six refugees have been killed.

UNICEF estimates that over 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the next 12 months – a tenfold increase compared to the average annual caseload.

The price of failing to fund children’s school meals far outweighs the cost of such programmes, World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley said at the session School Meals Coalition.

Some of the areas where protection services are particularly limited and where few humanitarian actors are present, are remote border regions of Mali, Niger and Sudan along the edge of the Sahara.

Efforts to fight a global surge in acute food insecurity are being stymied in several countries by fighting and blockades that cut off life-saving aid to families on the brink of famine, warn FAO and WFP.

The situation for families is worsening as a wave of COVID-19 rages across the country and children are unable to access medical care and education, warns Save the Children.

Nearly four million doses from COVAX arrived in Africa last week, against just 245,000 doses from the facility throughout the month of June. COVAX aims to ship 520 million doses to Africa by year-end.

COVID-19 has disrupted essential health services in most countries in region, threatening immunization of children and care of expectant mothers and people with chronic conditions.