More children are surviving than ever in history - but not in sub-Saharan Africa

• The annual death rate of children under 5 is down by more than half since 2000.
• However, in sub-Saharan Africa, that rate remains stubbornly high.
• Niger has the worst record in Africa, with 117.2 deaths per 1 000 live births.

Globally, more children are surviving today than ever before, as child mortality - the death of children under the age of 5 - hit historic lows in 2022.

Data from two years ago shows "a noteworthy moment in the ongoing campaign to end all preventable child deaths", according to the newly released UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

With the deaths of children slowing down to 4.9 million incidents in 2022, the global child mortality rate has fallen by 51% since 2000.

"This is a testament to the commitment of governments, organisations, local communities, healthcare professionals and families to the survival of the most vulnerable members of our global community," the report says.

However, some parts of the world contributed a significantly larger portion of the 4.9 million deaths than others, with continued high rates of child deaths "concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. There is still a long road ahead to end all preventable child and youth deaths," the report said.

The worst among the bad

According to the report, Niger has the worst record in Africa, with 117.2 deaths per 1 000 live births - compared with 6.6 deaths per 1 000 in China and 14 deaths per 1 000 in Brazil.

According to a report by the Christian Chronicle, women in villages must walk some 25km to reach a clinic for prenatal care and childbirth.

READ | Nearly 230 000 children 'likely to die from hunger' in Sudan within months

Many opt to deliver at home, and five out of every 15 newborns die from premature birth.

Niger is currently under the rule of a military junta and is suspended from the African Union.

A mother eats with children in an internally displaced people's (IDP) camp, where flood evacuees are accommodated, at Community Primary School in Ihuike, Niger delta region of Ahoada, Rivers State, Nigeria. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP)

AFP

Second is Nigeria, with 107.2 deaths per 1 000 live births.

Despite being the second-biggest economy in Africa, Nigeria has low investment in healthcare by the private sector.

Somalia is the third worst, with 106.1 deaths per one 1 000 live births.

A decaying healthcare sector has been a problem for Somalia for the past three decades.

Displaced Sudanese children carry packs of food aid at near Gadaref city in Sudan on 6 March 2024. Save the Children says hundreds of thousands of children risk starving to death in the short term, and Sudan could find itself in a cycle of famine in the longer term. (AFP)

AFP

Chad is another poor performer, with 102.9 deaths per 1 000 live births.

According to the University of Colombia's Mailman School of Public Health, local clinics, in many cases, lack the necessary drugs and skilled staff for safe childbirth. This is despite a national free healthcare policy for malnourished children.

Rounding off the worst affected counties in sub-Saharan Africa is Sierra Leone with 100.8 deaths per 1 000 live births, South Sudan with 98.8, Guinea with 96, and Mali with 93.8 deaths per 1 000 live births.