Nearly 1.4M Children Face 'Imminent Death': UN

Famine in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen endangers children
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 21, 2017 3:26 PM CST
Nearly 1.4M Children Face 'Imminent Death': UN
In this Monday, Aug. 29, 2016 file photo, a malnourished child is weighed on a scales at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Maiduguri, Nigeria.   (Sunday Alamba)

The UN children's agency is warning that almost 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk of death" as famine threatens parts of South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen, the AP reports. The UNICEF announcement comes a day after famine was declared in parts of Unity state in South Sudan, where civil war has raged since late 2013 and severe inflation has made food unaffordable for many. UNICEF for months has warned about severe malnutrition in northeastern Nigeria, especially in areas that have been largely inaccessible because of the Boko Haram insurgency. The agency says nearly 500,000 children are expected to face severe malnutrition this year in Borno, Yobi, and Adamawa states. The agency says Somalia also faces drought, and in Yemen's conflict, nearly half a million children have "severe acute malnutrition." (More United Nations stories.)

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