The 9-month-old twins cried nonstop and tugged at their mother, seeking attention but also food. They had received little in the past 24 hours, and there were signs of deeper hunger in the heads too big for their tiny bodies. “Not much milk comes out,” said their 38-year-old mother, Dorcas Simon, who struggles to breastfeed and has three other children.
She laughed, as if to conceal the pain. “What will I give them when I don’t have food myself?” Here in northern Nigeria, where and have long contributed to the problem, her twins are among 181 million children under 5 — or 27% of the world's youngest children — who live in , according to a new report Thursday by the U.N.
’s children agency. The report, which focused on nearly 100 low- and middle-income countries, defines severe food poverty as consuming nothing in a day or, at best, two out of eight food groups the agency recognizes. Africa’s population of more than 1.
3 billion people is one of the most affected mainly due to conflict, and . The continent accounts for one-third of the global burden and 13 of the 20 most affected countries. But it has also recorded some progress, the report said.
The percentage of children living in severe food poverty in West and Central Africa fell from 42% to 32% over the last decade, it said, noting advances including diversified crops and performance-based incentives for health workers. In the absence of vital nutrients, children living with “extremely poor” diets are .
