ReliefWeb

Cuito - About 144 children died in the first half of this year, victims of malnutrition, in ten controlled health units in the province of Bié, one more death than in the same period before.

The deaths are the result of 1,939 new cases entering the specific units in the province of Bié, 640 more than in the same period last year.

Of this number, more than 1,700 children were discharged for improvement, with the municipalities of Cuito and Andulo leading the statistics, according to Edna Mendonça, provincial supervisor of the Bié Nutrition Programme.

The main causes of the disease, she said, were early suspension of breastfeeding, food shortages in some families and prolonged illnesses (malaria, anaemia, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and others).

In 2019, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) donated 1,481 boxes of therapeutic milk and other malnutrition-fighting products to the Bié authorities to alleviate the situation.