The United Nations warned Monday of a “deepening crisis” of malnutrition in the Middle East and North Africa affecting a third of children.
“At least 77 million – or 1 in 3 – children in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have some form of malnutrition,” the UN children’s agency UNICEF said in a statement.
According to UNICEF, 55 million children in the 20 nations under consideration are overweight or obese, which is a form of malnutrition.
It stated that an additional 24 million children experience undernutrition, which manifests as stunting, wasting, and thinness.
“The deepening crisis of malnutrition in the region is being driven by what and how children are fed, poor access to nutritious foods, clean water, medical care and other essential services, and the proliferation of cheap, unhealthy poor foods high in salt, sugar and fat,” it added.
It occurs amid “ongoing conflicts, political instability, climatic shocks, and rising food prices that together, deny children their right to nutritious food and limit humanitarian access to vulnerable communities” .
Nutritionally sound food is only being given to one-third of young children, according to Adele Khodr, regional director of UNICEF.
“This is a shocking statistic in 2024 and risks becoming even worse as conflicts, crises and other challenges in our region persist,” she said.
Governments were advised by UNICEF to prioritize nutrition in their planning and policies.
About nine percent of the world’s population suffers from hunger, and UN agencies said this month that attempts to alleviate hunger last year were impeded by conflict, economic unrest, and climate change.
According to a report, they projected that 733 million people would go hungry in 2023; this number has stayed relatively stable over the past three years after rising sharply in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Approximately 29% of the global population, or 2.33 billion individuals, experienced moderate to severe food insecurity last year, forcing them to occasionally skip meals.
