1. Home
  2. Middle East and North Africa
  3. Iraq

UNICEF reopens Basra Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre

United Nations Children's Fund - UNICEF Logo [NEW] UNICEF
UNICEF will also provide water bowsers
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that the first of 20 Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRC) currently being refurbished in southern Iraq, and established to tackle malnourishment in children, had now reopened. Allan Dow, a UNICEF spokesman, said the NRC at the Ibn Ghazwan Hospital in Basra had been refurbished, re-equipped and restocked, and was now ready to treat the 25 badly malnourished children currently in the hospital. The remaining centres are all expected to resume operations in the next few weeks. "At the moment, we don't know how many malnourished kids there are in southern Iraq, but we are carrying out ongoing assessment missions to determine the exact number," said Dow. "What we do know is that one out of every eight children will die before their fifth birthday." UNICEF originally opened the NRCs during the sanctions regime against Iraq in the 1990s to deal with the growing problem of malnourishment. Since then the centres have fallen into varying states of disrepair.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join