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| October 16, 2001 | Tuesday | Rajab 28, 1422 |
100,000 Afghan children at risk: Unicef
ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: The United Nations warned on Monday that lives of some 100,000 children inside Afghanistan are at risk if sufficient food does not reach them before winter season.
The UNICEF representative Eric Lorache at a news briefing called for funds to cater to the need of Afghan children.
“Every seven out of 10 children have lost their family members and 90 per cent of them believed they will die in fighting.”
He warned that 100,000 children would die inside Afghanistan in winter if sufficient food is not provided to them in time.
His organization, he said, called for $36 million in emergency aid but only half of the amount has so far been received.
“If you are a child born in Afghanistan today, you are 25 times more likely to die before the age of five than an American or a French or a Saudi Arabian child,” he said
Laroche said that 300,000 children died each year from preventable causes inside the country. He termed it a “violence of neglect”.
UN Spokesperson Stephanie Bunker said that five civilians including a women were killed during US air strikes on the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in the Northern Afghanistan.
A local labour working for the World Food Programme (WFP) was also injured when a bomb shrapnel hit him while he was unloading food supplies from a truck, the United Nations officials said. Bunker told reporters here a US bomb shell killed five civilians near a crowded market in the city triggering fear among other people.—APP
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