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Press CentreBriefing note11 April 2003: What UNICEF said at the UN briefingBriefing by Geoff Keele, UNICEF Communication Officer, IRAQ All steps must be taken by the coalition forces to ensure that Iraq's vital social infrastructure is preserved. Otherwise aid attempts will be hindered and people, quite frankly, will die.
The absence of any real improvement in the security situation in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities continues to cause great alarm. When chaos and lawlessness rule, the most vulnerable segment of the population – the country’s children – are certain to suffer. We continue to see footage of people looting local hospitals in Baghdad and other centres. UNICEF has worked with these hospitals for years to improve children’s health and to successfully reduce malnutrition among Iraqi children. The country’s 63 paediatric hospitals house Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres to treat severely malnourished children. In the past two years, we have managed to reduce acute malnutrition by more than 50 per cent as a result of the good work undertaken in these hospitals. Now however, when the children need these institutions most, they are being dismantled, chair by chair, table by table, medicine by medicine. All steps must be taken by the coalition forces to ensure that Iraq's vital social infrastructure is preserved. Otherwise aid attempts will be hindered and people, quite frankly, will die. At the same time, in those parts of the country where security conditions have improved, UNICEF is extending its help to those in need. In the south, we can report an encouraging development from yesterday. The drivers of four UNICEF water tankers despatched to Zubair spoke with locals and had them select a community leader to control the distribution of much needed water. A local Imam was identified, and he recruited a number of locals who are well known in the community. As a result, the outcome was an orderly process of distribution, providing welcome evidence that communities are starting to organize themselves in terms of the relief efforts. A further ten tankers have left Kuwait for southern Iraq today. It is hoped that four will reach Um Qasar and six will head for Zubair. An update on the outbreak of diarrhoea illness that we told you about yesterday in Um Qasar. The latest figures we have suggest a growing problem. Out of 130 patients seen by a doctor at the Um Qasar hospital on Thursday, 40 cases -- roughly a third -- were of severe diarrhoea involving children under the age of five. This only underlines our belief that the lack of safe water remains the principal threat to civilian populations in Iraq. In the north, meanwhile, seven trucks will cross into Northern Iraq this afternoon from south-eastern Turkey. The trucks are carrying water and sanitation material, such as pumps and distribution pipes, together with a range of medical supplies.
For further information please contact us:. Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF Iraq:
gkeele@unicef.org For interviews in the region, write or call directly to the UNICEF NewsDesk in Amman: (962-79) 50422058 •
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