U.N. to help Nepal fight critical malnutrition levels

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - The United Nations will help rural communities in western and southern Nepal suffering from serious food insecurity caused by rising food and fuel prices, the world body said.

Nearly 1.5 million people in the remote areas also require urgent help after recent floods destroyed food stocks and crops and because of the effects of long-term conflict, the U.N. said in a statement late on Wednesday.

It said the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund would spend $3 million to meet "critical food needs" of vulnerable people, especially those most at risk including women, children, ethnic minorities and indigenous people.

"Levels of acute malnutrition are extremely high, especially among poor, landless and marginalised populations," said Robert Piper, chief of the U.N. office in Nepal.

Nepal ranked 57 out of 88 nations in the Global Hunger Index 2008, a malnutrition survey of developing countries and countries in transition carried out by the International Food Policy Research Institute. The Himalayan nation fell into the "alarming" category, ranking below Sudan and North Korea.

Several people were killed and thousands others displaced in floods and landslides that washed away or inundated crop land in Nepal's western hills and the southern plains in August.

One of the world's poorest countries, Nepal receives more than 60 percent of the cost of its economic development from international donors including the United Nations.

Many Nepali villages lack proper roads and are located in remote mountains, making transportation of goods including foodgrains difficult.

The nation has just emerged from a decade-long civil war that wrecked infrastructure.