Mogadishu – Thousands of children in war-torn Somalia are facing death or disability due to an outbreak of highly contagious measles, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Recent rates of infection are four times higher than the same time last year, and a vaccination campaign must be “urgently conducted to prevent thousands of avoidable deaths”, the UN children’s agency Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in a joint statement.
The outbreak comes amid renewed warnings impoverished Somalia risks sliding back into acute crisis less than three years since a devastating famine, amid poor rains, escalating conflict and aid funding shortfalls.
“We have a very high number of malnourished Somali children,” Unicef chief for Somalia Sikander Khan said.
“Malnourished children here are more susceptible to disease, and are more likely to die or suffer life long disability such as blindness, deafness or brain damage as a result of contracting measles.”…
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