El shabah children hospital is one of the health facilities supported by HEALTH Pooled Fund in South Sudan - credit | Charles Wote/Eye Radio - Nov. 6, 2021

Pediatric medics at Al Sabah Children’s Hospital report receiving at least 10 malnourished children daily.

According to medics, the only way to address this is for the government and stakeholders to prioritize food production.

They say the alarming increase in malnourished children in the country is due to inadequate food production in the country.

Speaking on Eye Radio’s Mother and Childcare program, the doctors expressed concern over the rising cases of malnutrition among children under the age of five.

Dr Omawa Angelo Peter, the Medical Director of Al-Sabah Children’s Hospital, attributes this to inadequate feeding by some mothers, resulting in key nutrient deficiencies in children.

Dr. Monica Ejido, a senior medical officer at the hospital, added that some mothers opt for formula milk instead of breastfeeding, aggravating the situation.

In an interview with Eye Radio, the doctors emphasized the importance of agriculture in combating malnutrition.

“Every day we receive at least 10 cases of malnutrition from the age of 0-5 years.“ Dr Omawa Angelo Peter – Medical Director of Al-Sabah Children’s Hospital

“Let us encourage cultivation, let us do agriculture. If you have a small space at home you can do planting to do agriculture, to avoid malnutrition,”  said Dr Omawa.

“We want to thank Our government, for the food you are giving us, we are advising people to do farming because farming is what will help people in South Sudan,” she said.

“If we don’t farm, malnutrition will not go.  We have a big land. Our mothers and brothers know how to farm, so, let’s go farming.”

For her part, Dr Monica highlighted the reasons behind the surge in malnutrition cases, including large families with multiple children under five, maternal deaths leading to inadequate care, and environmental crises like flooding, causing food scarcity.

“A lot of malnutrition cases are being reported to us. The reasons why malnutrition is on the increase are: when a mother comes to the hospital with one child having malnutrition, there are two more children at home under the age of five,” said Monicah.

“We have found that it is mostly children under the age of five who have malnutrition. So, if there are more than three children at home under five years, malnutrition sets in,” she said.

“Another reason is that sometimes a child is brought by the aunt to the hospital because the mother is dead. Other reasons include abnormal lips that make it difficult for the mother to suckle the breast.

“We do not control the environment sometimes due to natural crises. For example, in the case of flooding where people are forced to relocate to other places leading to scarcity of food and increasing the level of malnutrition.”

Last year, the World Food Program warned that over 1.6 million children under five were at risk of malnutrition in South Sudan, primarily due to flooding.

UNICEF estimated that malnutrition threatened 1.4 million children in 2023.

The doctors’ call for agricultural investment underscores the urgency to address malnutrition in South Sudan, emphasizing the need for sustainable solutions to protect the nation’s children from hunger and its devastating consequences.