Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Press Release
According to officials working at the Dolo Ado refugee camp located in Ethiopia, within a 24 hour period up to 200 Somali children die from disease and hunger.
Disease is the biggest threat to children living in refugee camps, with as many as 170 children at the Dolo Ado refugee camp dying from disease each day.
For children who live outside of the camp, an estimated 30 other children die of hunger and different diseases in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Although these figures are still shocking, they are not surprising as Somalia has the world's highest child mortality rate, with almost one in five children dying before their fifth birthday.
The mortality rate in 2010 stood at 180 deaths per every 1,000 live births, according to the latest data released by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.
The high mortality rate is also due to diarrhoeal disease-related dehydration, respiratory infections and malaria are the main killers of infants and young children, together accounting for more than half of all child deaths.
Cholera is endemic in Somalia, with outbreaks occurring annually from December to June. The major underlying causes of diarrhoea are the lack of access to safe water and poor food and hygiene.
Last year, only less than a third of one-year-old children in Somalia were immunized. Only about 5 per cent of children under one have all six recommended vaccinations.
This problem is then compounded by the fact that 70 percent of the population lacked access to safe water, and only three out of every 10 children of primary school age were enrolled in school.
Reproductive health also remains a major problem in Somalia, with a maternal mortality ratio of 1,044 per 100,000 live births placing Somali women among the most high-risk groups in the world.
Haemorrhage, prolonged and obstructed labour, infections and eclampsia (toxemia that may occur in late pregnancy) are the major causes of death at childbirth. Anaemia and female genital mutilation (infibulation) have a direct impact on, and aggravate these conditions.
Somalia remains affected by a combination of problems, including insecurity and limited mechanisms for governance.