Acute malnutrition among children in Mali reaches alarming levels

The latest Survey Monitoring and Assessment of Malnutrition (SMART) reveals alarming data: the prevalence of child malnutrition in Mali far exceeds the critical thresholds set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In camps for people displaced by the conflict in Gao, in the north-east of the country, the prevalence of moderate acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months is 30.1 per cent, twice the percentage established by the WHO as severe. Even more alarming are the rates of severe acute malnutrition nationwide, which rose from 4.2 per cent last year to 11 per cent today (Rapid SMART June 2024), the highest level in a decade. UN data estimated that, from June 2023 to May 2024, nearly 1.5 million children would be acutely malnourished nationally between June 2023 and May 2024.

The conflicts that have been unfolding in Mali since 2012 have unleashed a chain of food and nutrition crises with devastating consequences for the population, forcing people to flee the affected areas, leaving behind their homes and all their resources without being able to meet their most basic needs.

Food insecurity, lack of access to health services, poverty and forced displacement, as well as lack of knowledge about good nutritional practices, coupled with conflict, contribute to persistently high levels of malnutrition. This is further exacerbated by the lean season, the period between planting and harvesting crops, when food stocks are at their lowest, which is particularly hard on vulnerable households who, without assistance, have no means of securing their food supply.

“The nutrition emergency in Mali is a complex and multifaceted problem that requires concerted action by the international community,” says Action Against Hunger’s country director in Mali, Mamadou Diop, “This crisis requires a comprehensive response that addresses both immediate and structural needs, including improving food security, strengthening health systems, access to water and promoting hygiene and nutrition practices,” he adds.

Action Against Hunger, present in Mali since 1996, is responding to this crisis with a multi-sectoral approach. Darsalam, a camp for people internally displaced by the conflict in Ménaka, is home to more than 4 000 people who have fled the fighting in the region. In this camp, Action Against Hunger teams are screening and treating moderate and severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating women through a community-based approach combined with mobile clinics, while providing food aid to vulnerable households. There are also plans to rehabilitate and construct water, hygiene and sanitation infrastructure in the camps, also supporting with the distribution of hygiene and livelihood kits to households.

In the face of this emergency situation, Action Against Hunger and more than 40 other NGOs are calling for immediate action to prevent an increase in malnutrition rates in the most affected areas, as well as urgent mobilisation of funds to cover the urgent nutritional needs of 517,695 people in high priority areas during the lean season.