Struck hard by a drought related to this year's severe El Niño [10] phenomenon, Colombia's northern region of La Guajira is suffering from a crisis of malnutrition. Tania Galván, a leader of the region's Wayúu [11] indigenous group, told local media that her people's children are dying each week from malnutrition. According to the National Health Institute [12], 897 children currently suffer severe malnutrition in La Guajira. Indigenous leaders charge the government is ignoring an order from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR [13]) to take urgent action against extreme poverty in the region, where more than 4,000 indigenous children have died of malnutrition in the past eight years. The December ruling came in a case brought by Javier Rojas Uriana, leader of the Shipia Wayúu Association. Indigenous leaders say drought conditions are compounded by local corruption, economic slowdown, and massive use of water by the Cerrejon [14] coal mine in Albania municipality. (Colombia Informa [15], Feb. 20; El Espectador [16], Feb. 16; Colombia Reports [17], Feb. 12; Al Jazeera [18], Feb. 3)
