UNICEF warns one million Afghan children at risk of death from malnutrition

The United Nations has warned that around one million children in Afghanistan are suffering from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition and could die without urgent treatment.

UNICEF said on Tuesday that about 3.7 million children across Afghanistan are suffering from wasting, a condition caused by acute malnutrition.

Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan, said around one million of these children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which is considered the most dangerous form of acute hunger.

“If there is no treatment and we are not able to act fast, that one million number are at risk of dying,” Oyewale said during a media briefing in Geneva, speaking from Kabul.

He said the nutrition crisis is worsening across the country, with more than 500,000 children requiring hospital care so far this year for moderate and severe wasting.

According to UNICEF, nearly 40 percent of children admitted to hospitals with severe wasting and medical complications are babies younger than six months. Children under the age of two account for more than 80 percent of severe acute malnutrition cases.

Oyewale said malnutrition is playing a major role in the increasing number of deaths among very young children in Afghanistan.

The situation has also placed growing pressure on hospitals. In July last year, around 6,000 severe malnutrition cases were recorded, while the number rose by about one-third to more than 8,000 cases by July this year.

“In parts of southern Afghanistan, some hospitals are now seeing three or four severely malnourished children for every available bed,” Oyewale said.