Malnutrition threatens children in Kasai, DR Congo
Here are Kapinga children: Shabani (Left),3, Ngalula (middle), 7, and Kevine, 9 (right) sit down on the ground while having their poorer unique meal of cassava bread with a little chicken meat, Kasai central in DR Congo.
In Kasai, due to the lack of food, thousands of women and children suffer from acute or severe malnutrition.
Earlier this year, UNICEF estimated that at least 400,000 children in the Greater Kasai Region suffer from malnourishment and will risk death if nothing is done.
« Before the war, I lived off of what I harvested from my plot of land. It was easy for me to feed my children,” explained Kapinga.
“But since the conflict started, I can no longer go to my field because I’m too frightened of being attacked.”
Today, people use poor and inappropriate coping mechanisms to survive. To find food to eat, Kapinga wakes up early in the morning to beg for food in nearby villages.
" My children are starving and are sick. Their hair has changed colour, their cheeks have become a yellowish colour and their stomachs are swollen.”
June 2018
Photo: NRC/Ephrem Chiruza.
