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Kenya may Face Food and Health Crisis

by Medindia Content Team on Feb 9 2008 6:22 PM

According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), exodus of 300,000 people from Kenya, due to post-election violence, may force the country to face food shortage and a breakdown of health services in the coming months.

Filipe Ribeiro, MSF's emergency aid coordinator for Kenya, told AFP the population movements will have an impact on both urban and rural areas.

"The fact that people are pouring into slums where the population already is struggling to cope will cause a big problem for food security in urban areas," Ribeiro said.

"We will be closely watching the food situation in the months to come."

He noted that planting season had arrived but that no work was being done in the fields of western Kenya.

Kenya descended into crisis following December 27 elections that President Mwai Kibaki officially won but the opposition claims were rigged. International observers have also cited flaws in vote-counting.

More than 1,000 people have died in riots, tribal clashes and police raids, mostly in the western Rift Valley province.

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"In hospitals or clinics, the staff has been a victim of violence and they have trouble getting into work."

"The indirect consequence of the violences is that a child suffering from cerebral malaria cannot be treated because there are no nurses in the hospital," said Ribeiro.

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He recalled that during similar upheaval in 1992, it took three years to "bring to an end displacements, camps and resettlements" across the country.

Source-AFP
LIN/K


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