As a consequence of the increased global food prices, a nutrition crisis is already developing among Saharawi children in Algeria.
Photo: Mali Røsseth
On 24 August, three UN bodies called on the international community for increased humanitarian assistance to the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria. The trio paint a critical picture of the situation:
“This has deeply affected all sectors of humanitarian support", says the local UN coordinator Alejandro Alvarez. He expresses that the lack of funding “is worryingly hindering refugees’ access to food, water, health, nutrition, education and other essential livelihood services”.
The crisis comes on top of a very worrisome nutrition situation that has been developed over the last years.
Preliminary results of a nutrition survey carried out six months ago revealed “a deteriorating nutrition situation and an increasing prevalence of life-threatening wasting among children aged 6-59 months from 7.6% in 2019 to 10.7% in 2022. Half of the children aged 6-59 months are anemic, one in three children are stunted and only one in three children received the minimum diverse diet they needed to grow and develop healthily."
The UN bodies call on the international community to increase the financial support to meet the crisis. The statement came from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF and World Food Programme, all running aid programmes in the refugee camps.
The occupying power Morocco, which sabotages the work of the UN Human Rights Council in occupied Western Sahara, has begun its first session after being elected to preside the Council.
Today, Morocco was elected to chair the UN Human Rights Council. The result generated strong reactions.
"The credibility of the UN system is at stake", says the Norwegian Support Committee about this week's election of a new presidency of the Human Rights Council. Norwegian organizations are critical of the candidacy.
A Saharawi activist in Moroccan prison last week initiated an open hunger strike.