[Media-watch] Malnutrition Rising Among Iraq's Children - AP/Kansas City Star - 22/11/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10246690.htm?1c

Posted on Mon, Nov. 22, 2004

Malnutrition Rising Among Iraq's Children


MATT MOORE

Associated Press


STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Malnutrition among Iraq's youngest children has nearly 
doubled since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq despite U.N. efforts to deliver 
food to the war-ravaged country, a Norwegian research group said Monday.

Since the March 2003 invasion, malnutrition among children between the ages 
of 6 months and 5 years has grown from 4 percent to 7.7 percent, said Jon 
Pedersen, deputy managing director of the Oslo, Norway-based Fafo Institute 
for Applied Social Science, which conducted the survey.

The U.N. Development Program and Iraq's Central office for Statistics and 
Information Technology also took part in the survey.

"It's in the level of some African countries," Pedersen told The Associated 
Press. "Of course, no child should be malnourished, but when we're getting 
to levels of 7 to 8 percent, it's a clear sign of concern."

Figures from different countries are hard to compare, said Caroline Hurford, 
a U.N. World Food Program spokeswoman in Rome, noting that surveys may be 
out of date or apply different sampling methods.

A UNICEF survey of Middle Eastern and North African states in 2003 found 7 
million children were found to be suffering from malnutrition.

Before the invasion, the level of malnutrition among children in Iraq was at 
about 4 percent.

The latest study of 22,000 Iraqi homes in April and May suggests some 
400,000 children are suffering from malnutrition. The results were confirmed 
by Iraqi interim government officials involved in the study, although the 
official figures are contained in a UNDP report, which has yet to be 
released.

Calls by the AP to the UNDP and to UNICEF in Geneva were not immediately 
returned.

However, Alexander Malyavin, a child health specialist with the UNICEF 
mission to Iraq, told The Washington Post that the figures clearly indicated 
a "downward trend."

Before the war, the U.N. oil for food program was credited with nearly 
doubling the Iraqi population's annual food intake and reducing by half 
malnutrition levels among children.

That program lasted seven years before it was taken over in December 2003 by 
the U.S.-led coalition, which operated it through June 2004.

Since Saddam's ouster, the U.S.-led coalition has faced a growing insurgency 
which led to problems getting adequate supplies of food into hot spots, 
particularly in and around Sunni areas to the north and west of Baghdad.

In September, the Rome-based WFP reported that some 6.5 million Iraqis 
remained dependent upon food rations, a lifeline that has been increasingly 
threatened by the lack of security.

Earlier this month, the WFP, said its distribution of 1.6 million tons of 
food was completed, but noted some shortages, although it didn't say of what 
and where.

The WFP followed up with a one-year, US$60 million emergency food 
distribution operation aimed at providing 67,000 metric tons (74,000 tons) 
of food specifically for 220,000 malnourished children and more than 1.7 
million primary school children.

Pedersen noted that the malnutrition levels were different throughout Iraq, 
with the most severe being in the southwest portion of the country while the 
northern reaches, which are Kurdish-controlled, had little malnutrition.

"It's clear that some parts of the country like Sulaimaniyah in the north 
have very little," he said. "And that is easily explainable in that it was 
outside of the Hussein regime, was supported by a lot of international NGOs 
and has been largely unaffected by the current unrest."

Regardless of the unrest that has gripped the country, Pedersen said the 
findings were still puzzling.

"Given the fact that World Food Program has distributed a lot of food, it's 
quite clear that one could expect some malnutrition, but the level that 
there is, it's a bit difficult to explain."
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