Southern Ethiopia Nutrition Crisis

At present, the situation seems to be stabilizing in some of these areas and admissions of severe cases into the MSF centers are decreasing. However, it is not possible to identify a general trend across the country.

Nearly 40,000 people have received food distributions through MSF nutrition activities in southern Ethiopia over the last four months. Although harvest time has arrived in some areas and is close in others, hungry crowds still gather at the entrance of the centers.

Confronted by rapidly escalating numbers of severely malnourished patients in southern Ethiopia, MSF has set up 51 ambulatory nutrition centers and five hospitalization centers. More than 20,000 patients with severe acute malnutrition have been admitted to the program.

More than 16,700 severely malnourished patients, mostly children, have been cared for in MSF programs in the Oromiya and Southern Nations and Nationalities People's (SNNP) regions of southern Ethiopia.

“One of my children died because we had nothing to eat at home. Today, I am coming to MSF in Tunto to see if my other child can be admitted into the outreach therapeutic program."

"We’ve already admitted more than 100 patients this morning, but a lot of people don’t meet the admission criteria and don’t understand why they’ll receive nothing when they have nothing.”

MSF has treated 11,800 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the Oromiya and SNNP regions of southern Ethiopia since mid-May. In certain areas, poor rainfall, high food prices, low purchasing power and other factors have led to an alarming situation.

On May 20, MSF set up a stabilization center in the Shashemene region of southern Ethiopia to provide 24-hour medical care to children with complicated severe malnutrition—those at highest risk of dying who are suffering from additional conditions such as dehydration or malaria. Within days, the center had admitted over 200 children. Here, their caretakers describe the difficulties of the last few months.

Since May 13, MSF has been continually scaling up its activities in areas of southern Ethiopia to respond to the alarming nutritional situation there.

Since MSF started its intervention in the Oromiya region on May 13, more than 700 children with complicated severe malnutrition have been admitted to its three inpatient centers in Shashemene, Ropi, and Senbete Shinquille. MSF is treating more than 1,500 who are not suffering from complications, such as severe dehydration or malaria, on an outpatient basis in eight different clinics around the region.

Two weeks ago, MSF launched a nutritional intervention in some areas of the southern region of Oromiya in Ethiopia, following assessments that showed alarming levels of malnutrition among children under five.