Six NGOs warn that 8 million children are at risk of dying in 15 countries due to famine

MADRID, 17 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Six NGOs working to protect children, including Save the Children International and World Vision, have warned that 8 million children are at risk of dying in at least 15 countries from famine.

Faced with an "unprecedented" hunger crisis, NGOs have called on the international community to pay attention to the "devastating" consequences of famine in children in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia or South Sudan.

"If we don't act now, the consequences of this hunger crisis will have devastating and lifelong repercussions on children's health, nutrition, education, protection and survival," said the director of Save the Children. International, Inger Ashing.

In this sense, faced with the 50 million people who live in catastrophic levels due to acute hunger, the NGO has assured that the international community has "the collective responsibility to guarantee that urgent measures are taken to prevent the death of hundreds of thousands of children. and girls".

"The organizations that work directly with children, families and communities around the world see daily the devastating effects that conflicts, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and the consequences of the war in Ukraine are having," Ashing pointed out.

Likewise, it has warned of the danger that girls run, especially, since they may be subjected to child, early and forced marriage, early pregnancy, school dropout or sexual exploitation and abuse. "When food is scarce, girls and women tend to eat least and last," she recalled.

Save the Children has indicated in a statement that "food security is not a privilege, but a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948", so "international leadership and political will must promote both an immediate response how to address the root causes of hunger.