BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The government of northern Argentine province of Chaco declared a state of emergency in the region after the deaths of over 20 ethnic minority people, local media reported Tuesday.

    Chaco's governor, Jorge Capitanich, announced the emergency late Monday in response to the death of 21 Toba adults and one baby during the past several months, all due to malnutrition.

    The Toba is suffering from food shortages as wells as diseases associated with poverty including tuberculosis and Chagas disease, the governor said.

    The governor called for assistance from the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and the Argentine Red Cross.

    To help solve the crisis, the provincial government signed a decree earlier with a series of ethnic minority communities, offering them untransferable right to the land where they live.

    According to the decree, some 351,000 hectares of land could be transferred to indigenous communities six months after the decree's signing.

    However, Rogelio Banuco, from an Argentine indigenous communities association, said he was worried about what may happen within this six months and the slowness of the paperwork associated with the process.