A nutrition and mortality survey carried out by Mali’s Ministry of Health and its partners, including UNICEF, found that the rate of global acute malnutrition (GAM) is 13.5 per cent making it a “serious” nutrition situation according to UN classification.

The situation is even more worrying in the Bourem health district, where the rate of GAM is 17 per cent, exceeding the emergency threshold of 15 per cent set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

During the next six months, 22,730 children will be at risk for acute malnutrition, UNICEF warned in a news release.

“The nutrition situation in Gao deserves special attention. Action must be taken now so that children who can be saved are not left to die and so that new cases can be prevented,” David Gressly, the Humanitarian Action Coordinator for Mali, said during a visit to Gao yesterday.

Gao was among the areas affected by the fighting that broke out last year in northern Mali between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, after which radical Islamists seized control of the area. The crisis uprooted hundreds of thousands of civilians and led to a dire humanitarian crisis.

UNICEF pointed out that the high malnutrition rates are explained, in part, by the fact that the survey was conducted in May 2013, at the start of the hunger gap season when food supplies run out.

Also, the spike in malaria during the rainy reason has had an impact on children’s nutritional status. The negative impact of the recent conflict on populations’ financial wherewithal is another factor contributing to the severity of the situation, the agency said.

“The lives of many children are in jeopardy. They need immediate assistance,” said Françoise Ackermans, UNICEF Representative in Mali. “Treating children suffering from severe acute malnutrition is a priority for UNICEF. We are sparing no effort to assist each child suffering from malnutrition,” she added.

This year, more than 108,000 children under age five were admitted to nutrition rehabilitation units around the country with the assistance of the Government, UNICEF and humanitarian partners.

The nutrition survey will be conducted next in Timbuktu, in northern Mali, and is already underway in the south of the country. Results will allow for nutrition trends to be assessed to better evaluate needs and prioritize resource allocation.

UNICEF stated that $80 million is needed to meet nutritional needs throughout the country. To date, only a quarter of this funding has been secured. As of 22 July, the Consolidated Appeal for Mali has mobilized $142 million, 30 per cent of the $476 million sought.

“I have spent the past two days seeing for myself the effects of the terrible food and nutrition crisis that is now affecting at least 4.6 million people in Mali, as well as the difficulties faced by Malians affected by insecurity in the north,” the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, said during her trip to the African country.

Pointing to her Tuesday visit to the Gabriel Toure nutrition centre in Bamako, the Malian capital, Ms. Amos noted that treatments costing just $100 were restoring to health numerous children affected by severe acute malnutrition and that nearly 150,000 children had been treated in similar facilities across the country.

However, despite the progress, Amos voiced concern that not enough was being done and urged donors to step up with their contributions.

“There are too many other children who are not being reached because we do not have the money to increase our operations everywhere,” she warned. “We asked for $213 million to provide life-saving projects this year; less than half of that has been provided.”

Mali is located in the Sahel region, a semi-arid belt crossing the north of Africa, which is highly exposed to the threat of famine and where 1.1 million children are currently at risk of severe acute malnutrition.

A recent report released by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that Mali’s food situation was especially precarious as a plague of locusts in the country’s north was spreading and threatening agricultural production in the rest of the country.

Following her visit on Wednesday to the city of Mopti, Amos acknowledged that the delicate humanitarian situation caused by the food crisis was being further compounded by continued instability and insecurity caused by violence in the north.

In January, fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in the country’s north. The clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led the displacement of an estimated 440,000 people.

Amos observed the shipment of supplies being sent by river barge from Mopti to beleaguered towns in the north of the country, including the historic city of Timbuktu, which has been in rebel hands in since April.

“There are many people we cannot reach because so many places are too dangerous for relief organizations to work,” Amos continued, adding that “without additional support, we are not going to reach everyone who needs help.”