BBC, 9 September 2024
“Seven hundred children have died in the past six months at the hospital – more than three a day, the Taliban’s public health department in Nangarhar told us. A staggering number, but there would have been a lot more deaths if this facility had not been kept running by World Bank and Unicef funding. (…) Over the past three years we have been to more than a dozen health facilities in the country, and seen the situation deteriorating rapidly. During each of our past few visits to hospitals, we’ve witnessed children dying. (…)
In the communities around the hospital, we found evidence of another alarming statistic released this year by the UN: that 45% of children under the age of five are stunted – shorter than they should be – in Afghanistan. (…) [In total, there are] 3.2 million children with acute malnutrition [in Afghanistan].”
In the original (now apparently edited) version, this was also said:
“Only 1 out of 5 children who need hospital treatment can get it at [this] hospital. (…) community nutrition programmes run by aid agencies in Afghanistan have seen the most dramatic cuts [of western funding] – many of them have received just a quarter of the funding that’s needed.”
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 10 Sep 2024
