No fewer than 26 children under five have died due to malnutrition and inadequate food in north Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province over the past five months, a hospital source said Thursday.
According to local medical doctor Abdul Malik Rofi, 365 children under five have been admitted to the hospital in Badakhshan during this period, with 26 of them succumbing to malnutrition, the Afghan media outlet reported.
The report said that since March 20, a total of 2,696 children have been brought to the hospital.
Doctors have attributed the rising malnutrition cases to a combination of factors such as lack of nutritious food and poverty.
The doctors also added that inadequate healthcare services and limited access to healthcare facilities in the impoverished region were the causes.
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According to reports from aid agencies, approximately 2.9 million children under five are facing acute food shortage or at risk of malnutrition across Afghanistan.
The United Nations has warned that nearly 23 million people — about 55 percent of the population — are facing extreme levels of hunger. Children are bearing the brunt of the crisis, with 14 million at risk of starvation this winter, the UN said.
Foreign aid workers and Afghan medical staff estimate that dozens of children, mostly under the age of 5, are dying of starvation every week across the country.
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