Friday 21/Mar/2025 – 09:29 PM
The United Nations Children’s Fund has announced that the food supplies designated for treating children with acute malnutrition in Ethiopia and Nigeria may run out during the next two months, as a result of the aggravation of the lack of financing, which was affected by the Trump administration discounts for external aid.
UNICEF warns of a lack of aid
UNICEF said, in a statement, that about 1.3 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition in these two countries, which exposes them to the risk of losing life -saving food support this year. Kitty Van der Hayden, Vice -Executive Director of UNICEF, said in a video call from Abuja that the supply of therapeutic food supply for use will be depleted by May, which means that 70,000 children in Ethiopia who depend on this treatment will not receive the necessary care if new financing is not secured.
In Nigeria, UNICEF told that it was about to deny the supplies necessary to feed 80,000 children with malnutrition by the end of this month.
During her recent visit to a hospital in Maidoguri, Van der Hayden described the case of a child suffering from severe malnutrition to the point that her skin began to fall.
Recent years have witnessed a decrease in international donor contributions to United Nations agencies, including UNICEF. The financing situation deteriorated after the United States, the largest donors, imposed a 90 -day comment on all US foreign aid starting from the first day of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.
This procedure, in addition to the subsequent orders that suspended many of the American Agency for International Development, led to a threat to the delivery of life and medical aid that saves life, causing great chaos within global humanitarian relief efforts.
Van der Hayden warned that the current financing crisis may turn into a crisis related to the survival of children, stressing that the sudden nature of discounts has not given UNICEF enough time to take alleviation. These discounts also reduced health care programs that provide nutrition services and care for malaria patients for pregnant women and children in Ethiopia, where 23 mobile health clinics stopped in the Afar area, and only 7 clinics remain due to lack of financing.
