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Omaheke commits to ending malnutrition

The Omaheke region is committed to ending malnutrition deaths in the region, following an announcement that roughly 800 people have died from malnutrition in the region between 2022 and 2024.

The region also recorded 30 219 cases of malnutrition in the same two-year period. This is according to Omaheke governor Pijoo Nganate in August 2024, during his state of the region address.

He said during the 2022/2023 financial year, 14 774 new malnutrition cases were recorded through the health ministry’s nutritional assessment, counselling and support programme.

During the regional council’s 2025 opening ceremony yesterday, Nganate called for radical change, saying that malnutrition and poverty were unacceptable.

He highlighted that the past year had seen the drastic reduction of deaths caused by malnutrition and that it was the government’s duty to make changes to continue this trend.

“We are the least populated region in the whole country, with a meager population of 102 881 [in 2023 figures], and it is incomprehensible that, with the abundant resources at our disposal, we still fail to feed the people of our region. This should by all means be unacceptable to each citizen of this region,” he said.

“The time for beautiful rhetorical statements and never-ending creation of public image is over. People do not eat policies; they do not clothe themselves in plans and frameworks. Our people are in urgent need of houses, sanitation, clean drinking water, safe streets [and] employment opportunities. They need food and it is unacceptable of us, on a daily basis, to pass children living on the streets and not to do something in order to address their plight.”

Malnutrition claimed the lives of 45 children in the region in 2024. The governor announced in an interview with Desert FM in January that his office will start distributing nutritious meals to about 460 children and 40 adults. He highlighted an initiative at Nuwe Hoop farm, that aims to further reduce food insecurity. “My dream of every child in Omaheke having a glass of milk per day has started and proved not to just be rhetoric.”

The governor reported that while the region has received good rain recently, the effects of drought still provide significant challenges.

Farmers have lost significant numbers of livestock and are still grazing in corridors and on municipal land. Nganate called on the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform to provide land for some of these farmers to resettle.

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