N'DJAMENA, 19 December 2008 (IRIN) - Aid agencies have begun emergency therapeutic feeding in western Chad, where a recent study revealed that 20 percent of children under five are acutely malnourished.

As commonly happens across the Sahel, chronic deficiencies in Chad's Kanem region have led to dangerous malnutrition levels that require an emergency response.

In addition to the acute malnutrition numbers, the survey - conducted by Action Against Hunger (ACF) and released in November - also found severe malnutrition in 2.8 percent of children. In a population of about half a million, for every 10,000 under-five children, three die daily.

"These results are alarming," said Kingsley Amaning, UN humanitarian coordinator for Chad. "While the causes for such high rates of malnutrition may be of a chronic nature, it is clear that a humanitarian response is needed, and this is therefore an urgent humanitarian problem that we need to address."

In the week of 15 December the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and ACF began emergency operations in Kanem, according to Marzio Babille, head of UNICEF in Chad.

Babille said the immediate need is to screen children and provide supplementary feeding and medical attention. For the longer term, he said: "We need to prevent malnutrition, which means immediately enhancing the quality of school meals and improving families' access to quality foods."

Immunisation drive

UNICEF warned that without rapid intervention malnourished children will be susceptible to diseases such as measles. The agency is planning to vaccinate against measles in Kanem in January.

"This requires a concerted effort together with the government of Chad to immunise children against measles, provide vitamin A supplements, and deliver quality care for children with severe under-nutrition," Babille said.

UN and government officials told IRIN that a delegation of the Health Ministry is preparing a mission to the region.

Babille said that given effective collaboration among the government and aid agencies he is confident that emergency needs will be met. "The minister of health and minister of social affairs responded immediately with a high-level meeting," he told IRIN. "I'm very optimistic that at least the urgent phase is going to be tackled."

Tackling the urgent phase of malnutrition must be coupled with efforts to address long-term conditions that give rise to malnutrition, experts say.

Collaboration, sustained funding needed

"To address such a situation [as in Kanem], there is a need to have humanitarian and development partners and donors work together," Félicité Tchibindat, UNICEF regional health adviser for West Africa, said.

In addition to life-saving interventions to manage severe cases, steps must be taken to prevent severe malnutrition by treating moderate cases, providing blanket nutritional assistance for the lean season, and improving complementary foods, she said.

"The other important issue is sustained and predictable funding in high-burden countries, to effect sustained change in the population's nutritional status," Tchibindat said. "One-year funding clearly is not the solution." She said it was possible to tackle malnutrition with broad collaboration and adequate long-term funding.

The Kanem region is north of Lake Chad; ACF's representative study focused on the district south of the regional capital Mao. The region has a harsh Sahelian climate, and much of the population is nomadic.

Sylvain Trottier of ACF in Paris said Kanem's high malnutrition is caused by chronic food insecurity in the area, which is exacerbated by desertification and the region's isolation.

He added that some women lack access to information on breastfeeding and weaning techniques, and have few resources as many of the men are away from the region for long periods.

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More IRIN reports on the Sahel

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