NAIROBI (Reuters) -At least four African countries will run out of specialised life-saving food for severely malnourished children in the next three months due to shortages caused by aid cuts, Save the Children said on Thursday.
Supplies were getting dangerously low in Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan of high-energy biscuits, peanut-based Plumpy’Nut paste and other treatments known as Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), the British-based aid group said.
“At a time when global hunger is sky-rocketing, the funding that could save children’s lives has been cut because of recent aid cuts,” Yvonne Arunga, the charity’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, said.
Save the Children did not name specific donors or funding reductions in its statement. Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has slashed humanitarian assistance this year, and other Western powers have also been cutting funding as part of longer-term reductions.
Trump has said cuts to humanitarian aid are needed to ensure that grants align with his “America First” agenda and that other countries shoulder more of the burden.
Some clinics in the four African countries were turning to less-effective treatments for malnourished children, Save the Children said.
In Kenya, where an estimated 2.8 million people are estimated to have experienced high levels of acute food insecurity during this year’s March-to-May rainy season, stocks are expected to run out in October, it added.
The statement said RUTF supplies in Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan would run out within three months.
Government officials from the four countries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Globally, funding cuts are expected to cut off nutrition treatment this year to 15.6 million people across 18 countries, including 2.3 million severely malnourished children, Save the Children said.
Cuts by the Trump administration left 60,000 to 66,000 metric tons of food, including 1,100 tons of fortified biscuits, stranded in warehouses for months earlier this year, Reuters reported in May.
The U.S. government later agreed to hand over 600 tons of the biscuits to the U.N. World Food Programme but said it would have to destroy nearly 500 tons which expired last month.
Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department announced it would provide $93 million for RUTF supplies to treat more than 800,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in 13 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross and Ammu Kannampilly; Additional reporting by Benjamin Ezeamalu in Lagos; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
