More than 131,000 children suffer from chronic malnutrition in the central province of Manica. This was announced on 13 May at a press conference in the provincial capital, Chimoio, by Firmino Jaquet, the spokesperson for a meeting of the Manica Provincial Executive Council.

Although the figure is alarming, it is a reduction on 2013 when the province had about 150,000 chronically malnourished children, corresponding to 42 per cent of all children. However, 131,000 still represents 37 per cent of children under the age of five in the province.

According to Jaquet, "lectures on disease, cooking demonstrations, deworming, education on young children and how to feed them have all contributed to the province recording this reduction". "Chronic malnutrition does not kill immediately", he continued, "but moves on to acute malnutrition which can be fatal".

Chronic malnutrition, according to Jaquet, is associated with a lack of certain vitamins and can be treated easily. However, "chronic malnutrition can kill when associated with other diseases".

"Chronic malnutrition does not depend only on a single factor. The province may have a lot of produce. But people don't always consume what they produce. If they consume, it may not be in the right way. Others produce and sell everything. There is also a lack of the right combination to have a healthy diet", Jaquet said.

He also noted that there are drought-stricken zones with many cases of chronic malnutrition. "We also have child marriages and poverty. So, these are several factors to take into account when we talk about chronic malnutrition", Jaquet added.