Severe Malnutrition: Alarming Estimates In Quake-Hit Areas

KABUL (Pajhwok): Save the Children has warned that around 37,000 children under the age of five and 10,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are facing acute malnutrition in Afghanistan's earthquake-affected areas.

The organisation said the recent earthquakes have put thousands of vulnerable children at even greater risk, as tremors damaged numerous health clinics in a region where international aid cuts have already forced many closures.

According to the Nutrition Cluster in Afghanistan – a group of humanitarian organisations that includes Save the Children – more than 91,000 people in the quake-hit provinces need nutrition support.

A week after the 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck, tremors are still shaking eastern Afghanistan, where at least 16 health facilities have been damaged, and one completely destroyed, by the quake.

This is on top of the closure this year of about 80 clinics or mobile health teams – nearly 9% of the total in eastern Afghanistan – due to cuts in international funding, affecting an estimated 564,000 people.

About 422 health facilities have closed or been suspended across Afghanistan due to funding cuts, reducing life-saving healthcare for about 3 million people.

Samira Sayed Rahman, Programmes and Advocacy Director at Save the Children in Afghanistan, said:“Child malnutrition is already a national emergency. The devastating earthquake will only deepen this crisis. The brutal reality is that funding cuts mean less food aid and healthcare for children and their families.

“When a health clinic is damaged by disaster – or shut down by funding cuts – children often have to walk for miles to reach medical help. Our health teams are working round the clock providing immediate care, but the challenges ahead are immense and cannot be overcome without sustained, urgent funding from donors and governments.”

The earthquake that caused about 2,200 deaths – including about 750 children, according to the UN- came at a time when Afghanistan is struggling with a nationwide child malnutrition crisis.

Nearly five million children – or about 20% of children in Afghanistan – are facing 'crisis' or 'emergency' levels of food shortages. It is estimated that 3.5 million of these children could suffer from malnutrition this year.

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