Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Iraq say that malnutrition rates have risen in Iraq from 19 percent before the US-led invasion to a national average of 28 percent four years later.
Over 11 percent of newborn babies are born underweight in Iraq today, compared with a figure of 4 percent in 2003.
Caritas Iraq has been running a series of Well Baby Clinics throughout the country. The Caritas clinics help the most vulnerable, and the health crisis they face is much worse than the national average.
Claudette Habesch, President of Caritas Middle East North Africa: ""Iraq has the second largest oil supplies in the world, but it has levels of poverty, hunger and underdevelopment comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. … You cannot even go to the supermarket without fear that you will not return.
"The last four years, but in particular 2006, we have seen life get worse rather than better for the ordinary Iraqi. And people are voting with their feet. Everyday 5000 people leave Iraq. In 2007, one in ten Iraqis is expected to leave the country.
"We are seeing minority groups such as Christians completely disappear from the country or leave their homes for safer areas."
[Reuters]
Iraqi children pay the toll
Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the toll of war can be seen on the faces of the country's children. Hundreds of thousands no longer attend school. Many are forced to deal with mass displacement and killings of loved ones. Some are so shaken by the war, health experts say, they suffer from seizures and other mental health problems. "They killed my father and uncle in front of my eyes," one boy wept.
[AP]
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