At least 27.7m children affected due to flooding: UNICEF

UNITED NATIONS: At least 27.7 million children in 27 countries have been affected by flooding, with the number of children affected in Pakistan, Chad, Gambia, and northeast Bangladesh being the greatest in over 30 years, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.

In its alert issued, as the COP27 Climate Conference in Egypt continues, the UN agency stated that a vast majority of the affected children are among the most vulnerable and that recurrent disasters are straining the capacity of governments and the international community to respond, given the magnitude of the need.

Since millions of children are in high danger of malnutrition, disease, exploitation, and death due to climate change, the agency is urging delegates at COP27 to commit to money for the protection of children.

This year, according to UNICEF, floods have contributed to the spread of major killers of children, such as hunger, malaria, cholera, and diarrhoea, and the aftermath of floods is frequently more lethal for children than the extreme weather events that produced the flooding.

More than one in nine Pakistani children under five admitted to health institutions in flood-affected Sindh and Balochistan were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition.

In South Sudan, floods have damaged 95 nutrition facilities supported by UNICEF, impeding the delivery of life-saving and preventative malnutrition services to 92,000 children.

In recent months, flooding in Nigeria is thought to have displaced 840,000 children.

Flooding caused by heavy rains and flooding in Yemen caused considerable damage to shelters in displacement areas. 
As many as 73,854 households were affected, and 24,000 were relocated.