Alarming levels of child mortality

Child mortality rates in a district of the northern Afghan province of Faryab have reached “alarming levels”, now more than double they should be in an emergency situation, aid workers warned on Wednesday. “The mortality rate is alarming, and well over the emergency threshold,” the deputy director of the Afghan programme for Save the Children USA (SCF), Lisa Laumann, told IRIN.

SCF revealed the shocking findings of 5.9 children under the age of five per 10,000 people dying daily, after a survey was carried out in April in the Kohistan District. The normal rate should be two children per 10,000 people, according to an international standard set by a consortium of NGOs working in emergency situations.

Laumann said disease and lack of nutrition were the main causes of death. “We found a high level of malnutrition over a four-month period,” she said. While unable to confirm the exact statistics, Laumann suspected that many had died during the winter due to a lack of food. “The district is often cut off from the rest of the country for five or six months during the winter due to snowfall.” Scarcity of nutritious food and poor health care have resulted in cases of scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency causing skin to turn black, as well as some outbreaks of measles and diarrhoea. “There has been virtually no immunisation ever in the district,” she added.

The ongoing drought in Afghanistan, the worst in 30 years, has devastated land in the northern region. “Food is clearly a major problem,” Laumann said. Villagers had been totally dependent on crops, and the severity of the drought had left many farmers with a failed harvest this year, she added.

As to their financial situation, Laumann described it as “definitely bad”. She said many of the younger men had left the province and even the country to find work, leaving women, children and elders to fend for themselves. Laumann said around half the district’s population had now resorted to buying food, with 24 percent of people taking out interest-attracting loans, and 8.3 percent begging for food. With few able to find work, people have virtually lost their coping mechanisms, with most having to sell their assets in order to survive. SCF, along with other aid agencies, are assessing the situation in the area. However, Laumann warned that “without proper health care and increased assistance, the situation could get worse”.