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.
The dry corridor has annually suffered drought, but the advent of El Nino made food shortages in the region much worse.
