Guatemala is Under Famine Alert

Alvaro Colom, president of Guatemala, informed about a high alert on hunger and malnutrition that their child population suffers due to the loss of crops by the extreme weather changes. Ronaldo Robles, chief of the Presidential Social Communication Secretary informed that the alert was for the whole country.

According to the numbers given by the UN, 49% of children in Guatemala below the age of five suffer from malnourishment. Meanwhile the National Security of Nutrition presented the government a Nutritional Risk plan that can fight off the hunger problem in long term. The Ministry of Food and Nutritional Security informed that 15,000 children need immediate nutrition health.

The critical situation of food shortage in a country of 14 million occurred after a serious weather change. The indigenous population tries to grow crops despite the drought that alternate with intense rains. At just five months of elections, the government of president Colom faces the missing shipment of 40 thousand tons of food rations sent by the UN in November.

Source: AFP