16,000 child malnutrition cases in Niger since January

Almost 16,000 child malnutrition cases, including 18 deaths, have been registered in the west African state of Niger since the start of the year, the UN World Health Organisation said Thursday.

The total number of malnutrition cases for children under five was 15,791, the WHO said in a report. Nearly 14,000 of those cases were classified as moderate, while the others were called severe.

The hardest-hit regions include Maradi in the southeast and Tahoua and Tillabery in the west, where thousands of children were affected by Niger's 2005 famine.

Drought and locust attacks caused that shortage, which left three million people dependent on emergency food aid in the Sahel nation, much of which is arid and has borders with Mali and north African Saharan nations.

In January, the government and the
United Nations said child malnutrition had decreased. It reached a 10.3 percent level in 2006 compared to 15.3 percent the year before, they said.

However, the report said acutely severe cases of child malnutrition remained high, reaching 1.4 percent in 2006 compared to 1.8 percent in 2005.

Despite a 336,000-ton grain surplus in 2006, several agricultural villages claimed large shortages, the agriculture ministry said.

In some regions, malnutrition has persisted in part because of traditional practices rather than a lack of supply, Niger authorities say.

Those practices include preventing pregnant women and infants from eating items such as eggs or fish because of a belief that it could harm their health, the Niger health ministry says.

Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, has also seen strong population growth of about 3.3 percent per year.

Women have on average seven children, but there is also a high level of maternal and neo-natal deaths for an average of seven out of 1,000 women and 278 per 1,000 children, according to official statistics.