Africa Christians Face Starvation Amid Coronavirus Measures
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – A major Christian aid group warns that “chronic and acute malnutrition are spreading in COVID-19 wracked Africa,” including among Christians.
Barnabas Fund said the “economic catastrophe” of government-imposed lockdown measures to halt the coronavirus “has brought a very real and ongoing threat of starvation.”
The British group expressed especially concern about the plight of more than a million Christians, including many facing persecutions for their faith in several Muslim areas of Africa.
It recalled that a Nigerian child whose father was killed by Islamic militants. “His mother wept for joy to receive food from Barnabas amid a COVID-lockdown.”
Barnabas Fund also offered COVID-19 emergency support to Kenyan Christians earlier this year. Across Africa, “Barnabas has already fed 600,000 Christians suffering from COVID lockdown, locusts or both,” the group claimed. It said it wanted to extend aid to an additional 600,000 African Christians.
FOOD INSECURITY
Barnabas Fund explained that field workers not only see the threat of starvation in countries where “food insecurity is sadly familiar.”
They also noted that “Kwashiorkor symptoms,” such as a swollen belly, “are appearing amongst children and even adults in Swaziland, where the disease has been unknown for many years.”
Earlier, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) suggested that coronavirus measures will lead to an additional 130 million people being pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020. “That’s a total of 265 million people,” globally, added David Beasley, WFP’s executive director.
Barnabas Fund urged supporters to pray, and if possible, donate, to help impoverished Christians and others in Africa. “Even $9 will enable a family of five to survive for a month.”
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