Aid workers warn child nutrition reaching emergency levels in northern Mali

"Aid workers say child malnutrition is reaching emergency levels in northern Mali, which has been under the control of armed militant groups since April," VOA News reports. "Brussels-based aid organization Medecins du Monde, or Doctors of the World, says malnutrition rates among children under the age of five in occupied northern Mali are reaching 'alarming levels,'" the news service writes, adding, "The NGO says it found that 13.5 percent of those children in the far northern Kidal region are suffering from acute malnutrition," which is "double last year's rate and well over the World Health Organization's 10 percent alert threshold" (Look, 11/2).

In related news, "China has donated 3,000 tons of rice worth [about $4 million] to Mali to help the country overcome the difficult food situation resulting from poor rainfall in 2011 and the humanitarian crisis facing it since the coup of 22 March, PANA learned from official sources," Actualite Afrique reports. "Since the beginning of the crisis, China has donated to Mali large consignments of medicines, health equipment and food products for refugees in the north, who have fled the areas occupied by armed Islamist groups," according to the news service (11/3).