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Nepal unrest leaves millions of children facing food, medicine shortages: U.N.

01 December 2015 00:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Unrest over Nepal's new constitution has led to severe shortages of fuel, food, medicines and vaccines, putting more than three million children at risk of disease during the harsh winter months, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Monday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Nepal has been in turmoil since September when it adopted a new constitution, sparking protests by members of the ethnic Madhesi groups, who argue that the country's charter does not reflect their interests.

Protesters have blockaded trucks from India, leading to acute shortages of fuel and medicine in the landlocked Himalayan nation of 28 million people.

UNICEF said child survivors of two major earthquakes in April and May could be worst hit by the shortages. The tremors killed nearly 9,000 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 900,000 houses. Many remain homeless.

Newborn babies are at particular risk, as fuel shortages mean fewer women can get to hospitals and health centers to give birth, UNICEF said.

"The plight that children and their families are facing in the country has been worsening by the day and will deteriorate further in the winter months," UNICEF's regional director for South Asia, Karin Hulshof, said in a statement.