Hurricane Melissa has impacted the Southern Caribbean Islands, displacing hundreds, if not thousands, of families, including children, from their homes and injuring them. The impact of Hurricane Melissa also aggravated the conflict and famine crisis already happening in Sudan. The magnitude of the crisis demonstrates the worsening humanitarian crisis that people from all affected nations in the region face.
How did Hurricane Melissa affect the people of the Caribbean Islands?
The hurricane made landfall as a Category 5 in Jamaica and Cuba, and continued to hammer Haiti and the Dominican Republic with floods, landslides, and devastation of infrastructure. In Jamaica, the agency is trying to provide more than 284,000 children with access to safe nutrition support. UNICEF set a target to raise $46.5 million to help attend to the needs of 230,000 children and families.
Hurricane Melissa left many island communities unprepared. In the southern parts of Haiti, unendurable torrents of rain wiped out entire communities; in the Dominican Republic, flood and landslide events impacted over 60,000 people.
Lack of food, the destruction of crops, loss of electricity, and inaccessibility to clean water leave these children easy targets for illness, school disruption, psychological trauma, and the threat of malnutrition.
The children’s charity organization has started relief work
The charity is assisting in providing basic needs like hygiene and reactional kits amongst other materials. However, the communities that suffer the most are extremely hard to reach because the roads are damaged by floods, and the storms do not help the situation either.
The need for food deepens in all regions of Sudan. Years of conflict between the national Military and the RSF, coupled with extreme weather changes and limited humanitarian access, have turned the country into a humanitarian crisis. A recent statement by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the World Food Programme has said that the situation is getting worse for malnourished children.
The World Health Organization has reported that UNICEF has said more than 700,000 children are living in Sudan with the highest probability of suffering the worst forms of starvation. That is, unless there is considerable support.
The regions of Darfur and Kordofan are among the worst hit
The malnutrition rate in the regions is close to 30% in certain conflict displacement camps. Some communities have been ignored for assistance for months. Many conflict areas still suffer with resignation due to the lack of food, collapse of markets, and reliance on basic food, because there are no more accessible routes.
Both crises underline how climate in the Caribbean and conflict in Sudan can drive large-scale child suffering. Caribbean children’s safety, education, and nutrition can all be impacted due to infrastructure collapse and flooding. Continuous warfare in Sudan means children don’t have access to food, healthcare, and clean water, resulting in severe threats to long-term development.
Responding to these emergencies requires the focus of UNICEF
Schools, resilient materials, and safe-water systems are all necessary in the Caribbean. These children in Sudan are the most at risk, and the world is obliged to provide seamless humanitarian aid, therapeutic feeding, safe water, and health systems.
The simple numbers make it urgent. In the Caribbean, more than 700,000 children have experienced Hurricane Melissa, and over 700,000 children in Sudan are suffering from life-threatening malnutrition. Now is the time for the governments, donors, and civil society to get to work.
Governments now need to consider providing funding for mental health, nutrition, emergency water, sanitation, and hygiene. Schools and water systems should also be rebuilt for future storms. Now is the time for Sudan to advocate to world leaders to fund treatment for its citizens and advocate for policies to provide safe water and sanitation. The people and children of these nations are in desperate need.