Infant
Mortality Soars In Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe
09 May, 2007
The
Independent
WASHINGTON -Two
wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality
rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once
the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan
Africa.
A new report shows that in
the years since 1990, Iraq has seen its child mortality rate soar by
125 per cent, the highest increase of any country in the world. Its
rate of deaths of children under five now matches that of Mauritania.
Jeff MacAskey, head of health
for the Save the Children charity, which published the report, said:
“Iraq, Botswana and Zimbabwe all have different reasons for making
the least amount of progress on child mortality. Whether it’s
the impact of war, HIV/Aids or poverty the consequences are equally
devastating. Yet other countries such as Malawi and Nepal have shown
that despite conflict and poverty child mortality rates can be reversed.”
Figures collated by the charity
show that in 1990 Iraq’s mortality rate for under-fives was 50
per 1,000 live births. In 2005 it was 125. While many other countries
have higher rates - Angola, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo,
for instance, all have rates above 200 - the increase in Iraq is higher
than elsewhere.
Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh
have made the most progress in tackling child mortality, while Iraq,
Botswana and Zimbawe have regressed the most.
Sanctions against Saddam
Hussein’s regime were imposed by the UN in 1990 after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait and remained in place until after the coalition invasion
in 2003. The sanctions, encouraged by the US as a means to topple Saddam,
were some of the most comprehensive ever put in place and had a devastating
effect on Iraq’s infrastructure and health services.
Precisely how many children
died because of sanctions is unknown but a report in 1999 from the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), suggested that between 1991
and 1998 an additional 500,000 died.
Denis Halliday, who resigned
as the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in protest at the sanctions,
said at the time: “We are in the process of destroying an entire
society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral.”
Kathy Kelly, an anti-war
campaigner with Voices in the Wilderness, said last night: “The
punishment of children through the economic and military war against
Iraq has been the greatest scandal.”
Save the Children’s
report, State of the World’s Mothers 2007, found the majority
of child deaths occur in just 10 countries - either those with large
populations such as India and China, or those with sparse health services
such as Afghanistan and Angola. Aids remains one the central factors
affecting mortality rates.
“More than 10 million
children under age five still die each year. That’s almost 28,000
a day, almost all in developing countries,” said the charity’s
US president, Charles MacCormack. “Vaccines, oral rehydration
therapy and insecticide-treated mosquito nets are not expensive. Yet,
sadly, many mothers and children lack access to these life-saving measures.”
The 10 worst countries
Nine of the 10 countries
with the worst infant mortality rates are in sub-Saharan Africa. The
other one is Afghanistan, which has the second-worst rate.
1. Sierra Leone: 282 (per
1,000 live births)
2. Afghanistan: 257
3. Niger: 256
4. Liberia: 235
5. Somalia: 225
6. Mali: 218
7. Chad: 208
8= Democratic Republic of Congo: 205
8= Equatorial Guinea: 205
10. Rwanda: 203
© 2007 Independent News
and Media Limited
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