The U.N. Children's Fund says drought-stricken areas of the Horn of Africa are afflicted by record high levels of malnutrition among children. The aid agency says tens of thousands of drought victims are fleeing to parts of Kenya and Ethiopia where they hope to find food.
聯合國兒童基金會表示，非洲之角遭受乾旱，當地兒童嚴重營養不良。這個機構說，數萬受災民眾正逃往肯亞和衣索比亞的一些地方，他們希望在那裡找到食物。
The numbers are extremely alarming. The U.N. Children’s Fund estimates 480,000 children in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia will be severely malnourished this year. This is a 50 percent increase over last year’s figure.
營養不良的人數觸目驚心。聯合國兒童基金會估計，今年在索馬利亞、肯亞和衣索比亞將有48萬兒童出現嚴重的營養不良。這個數字比去年增加了百分之50。
UNICEF finds the worst affected children are in southern Somalia, where at least one in three children is severely malnourished. UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado says humanitarian conditions there are the worst in a decade.
聯合國兒童基金會發現，兒童營養不良最嚴重的地區是索馬利亞南部，那裡每3名兒童中至少就有1人嚴重營養不良。聯合國兒童基金會女發言人梅爾卡多表示，那個地區的人道主義狀況是10年來最為嚴峻的。
「Right now 2.85 million people, or one in three Somalis, is in crisis. That means lacking safe water and sanitation, health services, vulnerable to illness and at risk due to the conflict. In drought-affected areas of Kenya, monthly admissions for treatment of severe malnutrition are 78 percent higher than last year. In the Turkana district, that is up in the northeast, global acute malnutrition rates are the highest ever recorded in the district, at 37.4 percent,」 Mercado said.
她說：「目前有 285萬索馬利亞人，也就是說，三分之一的索馬利亞人處於危機之中。他們缺乏安全的飲用水、衛生設施、醫療服務，非常容易感染疾病，由於衝突而處境危險。在肯亞遭受乾旱影響的地區，每月因為嚴重營養不良而接受治療的人數比去年高出了百分之78。在肯亞東北部的圖爾卡納地區，嚴重營養不良者的比例高達百分之 37點4，是這個地區有史以來最高的。」
The United Nations reports more than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa are affected by the most severe drought to strike the region over the past 60 years. Two consecutive years or poor rain has resulted in crop failure and the death of up to 30 percent of livestock.
聯合國報告說，在非洲之角地區有1千多萬人受到60年來最嚴重乾旱的影響。連續兩年的乾旱，或者雨水不足導致作物歉收，多達百分之30的牲畜死亡。