The intervention has been directly supported and funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Some 27% of children under five in Bahr el Ghazal are acutely malnourished, according to results of a recent survey carried out by Action Against Hunger, nearly double the WHO’s emergency rate of 15%. An additional 5% of children in that age bracket have severe acute malnutrition, indicating that they are at immediate risk of starvation, even though the survey was conducted in the harvest season when malnutrition rates should be at their lowest. 

These elevated malnutrition rates are the result of a number of troubling developments. An area affected by cyclical droughts and creeping desertification dating back to the 1970s, Bahr el Ghazal has experienced a precipitous decline in rainfall in the last two years, which has decimated cattle herds—a main source of livelihoods in the region—and staple crops. 

As a result of a 34% drop in grain production throughout the country since last year, food prices are also on the rise; the cost of millet, for example, has reached the price level recorded at the height of the food crisis in March 2008. “Families are already decreasing the number and nutritional content of meals and heads of household are migrating in search of employment opportunities, as food stocks are depleted,” said Vincent Taillandier, Action Against Hunger’s West Africa Coordinator. Other factors, including political instability, ongoing conflict, poor health infrastructure and insufficient access to clean drinking water, and a fragile economy linked to fluctuations in oil revenues, have also increased the vulnerability of communities in the region. 

Action Against Hunger has launched an emergency operation to help 17,000 children at risk of live-threatening malnutrition in Bahr el Ghazal. Action Against Hunger’s emergency response will be fully operational within the month. The agency will support 15 local health centres in the region to improve their capacity to treat acutely malnourished children and ramping up community-based programmes to detect the condition before it reaches a critical stage. Action Against Hunger’s treatment model includes in-patient and out-patient centres, as well as a broad public awareness campaign to improve care and nutrition practices for young children. A mobile unit has also been set up to provide nutritional care to children in nomadic communities. 

Action Against Hunger has worked in Chad since 1981, implementing programmes in nutrition, food security, livelihoods, water and sanitation.