More and more under fives dying

Every fifth child born in sub-Saharan Africa will die before they reach five years old, and in much of West Africa mortality rates are rising, the UN children's agency UNICEF warned in a report issued in the Senegal capital Dakar on Friday. West Africa is among the worst places to be born in the world and for many children it's getting worse, said UNICEF. Children in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger and Sierra Leone born in 2004 are less likely to live than those born in 1990, said the report. One of the biggest causes of death is malnutrition, either directly, or because small children's bodies are weakened to such an extent that they die of malaria, tuberculosis or even a bout of diarrhoea. "Over 50 percent of child deaths in the Sahel are due to malnutrition. It's a growing problem," said Mustapha Darboe, regional director for the World Food Programme (WFP) which jointly hosted the Friday press conference. Darboe warned that child malnutrition is so out of hand in many West African counties that "very few" are likely to meet the UN's goal of halving world hunger by 2015. The UN uses the percentage of children under five who are underweight as its benchmark for change in hunger. The UNICEF report identified a number of key areas that need to be addressed, including educating mothers on the importance of breast feeding, and of giving children food appropriate to their age and of high nutritional value. Malnutrition takes two forms. One is a result of under feeding and is regularly seen in the arid Sahel, where parents are struggling to find enough food to feed their families. Children are most vulnerable in the months after they are weaned from the mother's breast and can become emaciated and skeletal. But children can also become malnourished from eating the wrong kinds of foods that do not provide their growing bodies with the all the nutrients needed. Then, bellies swell in protest and mother's are often unaware that there is a problem and assume the child is gaining weight. Malnutrition can have lasting implications for the child and has been linked to behavioural and development problems. In the worst cases, children who survive severe malnutrition can be left severely mentally impaired for the rest of their lives. "Some of the worst effects of malnutrition are reversible, but it is much better to prevent than treat problems," Darboe said. Last year WFP launched a massive emergency feeding campaign in Niger after drought and a locust infestation brought herding and subsistence farmers to their knees. Food was available on the markets of the capital, but those whose children were dying of hunger couldn't afford to buy it. "We need to accept that this is not just a problem of agricultural production... there can be surpluses and still be nutritional crises. We have to address the way products are used and how we distribute them to families," said UNICEF regional director for West Africa, Esther Guluma.