This increase, a consequence of the war in Ukraine, comes when more than 1.7 million children suffer from acute malnutrition in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Le Monde with AFP
At the foot of an acacia in northern Kenya – a region ravaged by drought – children eat a paste with enriched peanut butter, an essential therapeutic food to save them from malnutrition. Easy to use, easy to transport and keep, these bars are vital for the young inhabitants of the county of Marsabit, where humanitarian workers are alarmed to see children perish in conditions close to famine. “If we come to miss” from these precious foodstuffs rich in calories, vitamins and essential minerals, “we will record other deaths very soon”, dreads James Jarso, of the NGO World Vision.
But now is the price of these ready -to -use pasta, known by the English acronym Rutf, and of which Plumpy’nut, of French Nutrist, is the best known brand. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, it has become more difficult to make them and get them, worries Unicef, which buys almost 80 % of the world supply.
Ukraine is an important exporter of sunflower oil, wheat and other cereals, and the country’s invasion by Russia has affected the price and availability of basic products, but also weighed on fuel price and on supply chains, already disturbed by the COVVI-19 pandemic. By ricochet, the prices of powdered milk, vegetable oils and peanuts – three key ingredients of the Rutf – have climbed, explains Christiane Rudert, advisor responsible for nutrition within the unicef office for Africa East. Even red and white plastic packaging have become more expensive and rarer, according to her, and their more expensive routing due to the increase in fuel prices.
The company Nutriset, whose Plumpy’nut products benefited 9.7 million children last year, told AFP, in a statement, having made two successive increases in the price of its bars nutritional since May 2021, an increase of 23 %. UNICEF provides for a 16 % increase in RUTF prices by November, compared to the levels before the war in Ukraine.
a revolutionary product
This price increase comes at worst moments, while more than 1.7 million children under the age of 5 suffer from an acute form of malnutrition in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, three countries struck by An unparalleled drought for forty years. Distributing peanut bars will cost “12 million dollars more [about 11.7 million euros] that it would have cost before Ukraine”, calculates M me rudert.
Now donations for the horn of Africa are dramatically below needs. The Rutf, who do not need to be warmed up or diluted in water to be consumed, are “literally what saves the lives of children when they have already reached this advanced form of malnutrition”, adds M Me rudert: “It’s not just peanuts, milk, sugar and oil. It’s therapeutic.”
Designed twenty -five years ago in France, the product proved to be revolutionary in the treatment of severe emaciation -or severe acute malnutrition -, the most deadly form of undernutrition, which represents one of the main threats For the survival of children. It allows women and children to survive, testifies from a mobile clinic Doctor Mohamed Amin, who works for the Kenyan Ministry of Health and goes twice a month to the isolated hamlet of Purapul (North) for consultations.
There, rations of supplements equivalent to two weeks are distributed. Aripokiru Nakujan is one of the beneficiaries. The youngest of her six children suffers from malnutrition. “We are hungry, we have nothing to eat,” she said to AFP. At his side, her 6 -month -old baby swallows the peanut dough. An increase in prices of 16 %, or 600,000 doses of Rutf less, would be disastrous not only for the Horn of Africa, but for many other African countries. “There is no milk, there is no meat, there is no food for them,” insists James Jarso. And so these bars “save their life”.