UNICEF Warns of More Child Deaths as Food Costs Increase

As the economic impact of the Ukraine-Russia conflict has reverberated through multiple global channels, UNICEF has warned the world that nearly 600,000 children may die.

According to a new report  released by UN agency for children on Tuesday, an increasing number of children are likely to die from “severe wasting” as the price of food and life-saving treatment rises.

The negative impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing damage due to climate change, are causing a “spiraling global food crisis,” the UNICEF warned.

The report said the price of raw materials for the ready-to-eat packs to bring malnourished children back to health had risen by 16%. UNICEF would need extra funding to make up the difference.

"Meanwhile, more children are likely to be malnourished in the first place, as global food prices rise because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine," it added.

In this regard, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in the report, “The world is rapidly becoming a virtual tinderbox of preventable child deaths and child suffering from wasting,”

“For millions of children every year, these sachets of therapeutic paste are the difference between life and death. A 16% price increase may sound manageable in the context of global food markets, but at the end of that supply chain is a desperately malnourished child, for whom the stakes are not manageable at all,” Russell explained.

It's worth mentioning that the number of children suffering from severe wasting was already on the rise, before the war.