Somalia: IDP nutrition and mortality monitoring system

This is the fifth report from the Concern Somalia Nutrition & Mortality Monitoring System (NMS), which covers 20 IDP camps in the Afgoye Corridor, near to Mogadishu. A team of community health workers, closely supported and supervised by Concern nutrition staff, is collecting monthly data on resident households and new arrivals. The system was designed and is being implemented in partnership with University College London (UCL).

This report describes data collected between the 10th and 30th September 2017 (Round 18) and the trend in key child indicators since April 2017. As the acute crisis has reduced in severity and to streamline reporting, in this report we only present data on child indicators. All children within the selected camps were exhaustively sampled for the NMS.

September was marked by the arrival of a large number of new IDP in Ceeldhere camp, including 109 children aged 6-59 months. All the new arrivals had come from the Lower Shabelle region. Within Lower Shabelle, 79% of new arrivals came from Kuntuwarey District, with smaller numbers coming from Sablale, Qoryoley, and Afgoye districts.

The overall prevalence of proxy Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM by MUAC) in children 6-59 months during September was 5.8 % (Table 1). This is a marked improvement since July and the overall prevalence is now less than 6%, the threshold proposed by the IPC for defining an Acceptable situation.3 MAM has also reduced since July and was seen in 4.3% of children, and there was a marked decline in SAM. However, the prevalence of GAM by MUAC in new arrivals is still Critical (over 10.9 %) and continued work to reduce and control acute malnutrition remains important. Two case of nutritional oedema were observed in September.

The trend in GAM by MUAC within each of the camps covered by the NMS is shown in Figure 1. The thresholds for the ‘Extreme Critical’ (17%) and ‘Critical’ (11%) classifications proposed by the UN Integrated Phase Classification system are indicated by red dashed lines.3 While the trend in all camps is encouraging, 3 of the camps with a high proportion of new arrivals (Gurban, Rabi Yasir, and Ceeldhere) continue to have a prevalence of GAM by MUAC above the ‘Critical’ level.

Original source and full report: Humanitarian Response.
Published on 14 November 2017