Afghan War blamed for child malnutrition
United Nations figures show that malnutrition among Afghan children has increased more than 50 percent since 2012, with doctors blaming the ongoing war in the country for the crisis.
Hospitals across Afghanistan have been registering significant increases in severe malnutrition among children, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Severe cases have been reported in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Kunar, Farah, Paktia and Paktika all places where the continuing war has wrecked people’s lives and pushed the poor over the nutritional edge, the report said.
Doctors and aid workers have mainly blamed continuing war and refugee displacement for the hunger crisis. “In 2001, it was even worse, but this is the worst I’ve seen since then,” said Dr. Saifullah Abasin, the head of the malnutrition ward at Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul.
Dr. Mohammad Dawood, a pediatrician at Bost Hospital, said there were seven or eight deaths a month there because of acute malnutrition from June through August, and five in September. Doctors around the country have reported similar rates.
Officials at UNICEF and the Afghan Ministry of Public Health have declined to characterize child malnutrition here as an emergency, however, according to the Times.
As defined internationally, that would mean severe acute malnutrition in more than 10 percent of children younger than 5; health officials in Afghanistan estimate the rate is more like 7 percent.
The US and its allies entered the war in Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but the war has ruined the lives of people of Afghanistan. The Times said, "What is clear is that, despite years of Western involvement and billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, children’s health is not only still a problem, but also worsening...
http://www.nation.com.pk/international/06-Jan-2014/war-in-afghanistan-blamed-for-child-hunger-crisis
= new reply since forum marked as read
the war is against undefined enemies,
and the numbers of undefined enemies have expanded exponentially across the whole middle-east and north and central Africa.
IMO because the average US citizen is continuously terrified and victimized by these ME terrorists, the terrorists should be given no quarter.
Also, Afghans are little better than cave dwellers, stone age folk who haven't a clue about what it is to be human. To listen to them would be demeaning. It's much better to blame them for their situation.
for the sarcasm impaired:
