Attachments
SITUATION ANALYSIS
The prolonged crisis has led to major issues in hard to reach and besieged areas, where only limited food is available, and often at very high prices. In some cases residents have resorted to poor makeshift meals including unsafe water and grass. In the last year alone, staple food prices have doubled. A kilogram of rice now costs an average family more than six times as much as before the conflict. Bread costs have doubled. Livestock herds have been decimated by 30 to 50%, cutting essential protein out of children’s diets. It is estimated that 3.16 million children and pregnant and lactating women are in need of preventative and curative nutrition services. Micro-nutrient deficiencies are widespread and within serious to critical levels, as indicated by the high prevalence of anemia among more than 30% of children and women of reproductive age.
The therapeutic food and other nutrition supplies that UNICEF delivered through convoys have significantly contributed to saving the lives of children. Most of the acute malnutrition and oedema cases observed earlier this year are recovered and under control. The observed progress is a demonstration that continued presence and unconditional unhindered access to the besieged areas remain fundamental conditions for the prevention of child malnutrition.