Internally displaced children pose for a photo in Awerial, Lakes state - Jan 12, 2014 - Photo by Chris Marol

Over 1.3 million children under five in South Sudan will suffer from acute malnutrition this year, the UN Children’s Agency has said.

This is despite the work being done by thousands of professionals and volunteers to reduce malnutrition among children.

It recently found that nearly one-third of babies under six months old are not exclusively breastfed, the globally recommended period for optimal growth and development of a child.

UNICEF notes that three in ten children in South Sudan do not receive the best food in the first six months of their life.

It said the high numbers of child malnutrition can be substantially reduced from the beginning of a child’s life, through exclusive breastfeeding for six months and the introduction of energy and nutrient-dense complementary feeding thereafter.

The agency stated that new mothers need to be supported with the simplest, smartest, and most cost-effective ways to exclusively breastfeed their newborns so that they survive and thrive.

The government, UNICEF, and partners say they have already reached over a million pregnant and lactating women in South Sudan with maternal, infant, and young child feeding counseling.

The World Breastfeeding Week began yesterday and will run-up to the 7 August 2020.

The week-long advocacy is to encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies until the age of six months.

It also encourages families to give space between children being born so that the mother can devote herself to one baby at a time.