Food shortages afflicting hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans prompted a USD34 million appeal from the United Nations, along with the Guatemalan government and aid partners.
The appeal will benefit 680,000 people living in the so-called dry corridor including the departments of Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, Zacapa, Chiquimula, El Progreso and Baja Verapaz , and their neighbors, Izabal and Quiché. In the region, acute malnutrition plagues 11 percent of children under 5 and 13 percent of women of child-bearing age, thus exceeding the emergency threshold pegged of 10 percent.
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The dry corridor has annually suffered drought, but the advent of El Nino made food shortages in the region much worse.
