The relief agency GOAL has launched an appeal for funds to set up a feeding and medical programme for thousands of women and children in Sierra Leone.
The west African country has been devastated by civil war, and the feeding station, in the capital Freetown, is for a group of displaced people from the surrounding countryside.
"Malnutrition levels among the children are unacceptably high and unless urgent action is taken, many will die over the coming weeks and months," the agency director, Mr John O'Shea, said yesterday. GOAL can be reached at Box No 19, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.