The 2020 edition of the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) has reported more than 5.0 million children under age 5, including 2.4 million newborns, along with 2.2 million children and youth aged 5-24 years died in 2020.
According to the release, about 43 per cent of the deaths among those aged five to 24 years occurred among adolescents.
Over 70 per cent of all deaths among five to 24-year-olds occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (45 per cent) and Central and Southern Asia (27 per cent).
If current trends continue, the UN agency estimated that nearly 21 million children and youth aged 5-24 will die between 2021 and 2030.
In the mortality estimates, the UN IGME attributed the massive loss of lives to preventable or treatable causes and called for urgent need to end preventable deaths of children and young people.
The agency also stated that more than 48 million children younger than five will die before 2030, half of them newborns.
It predicted that over half of the deaths – 57 per cent – will take place in sub-Saharan Africa (28 million), with another 25 per cent (12 million) occurring in Southern Asia.
Meeting the sustainable development goals target in the 54 countries that are off track would avert eight million under-five deaths between 2021 and 2030 and reduce the yearly number of under-five deaths to 2.5 million in 2030.
According to the report, more than 50 countries will not meet the under-five mortality target by 2030, and more than 60 countries will miss the neonatal mortality target without immediate action.
“We are still losing too many young lives from largely preventable causes, often because of weak and underfunded health systems, which have faced enormous pressure over the pandemic
“And the burden of these deaths is not carried equally around the world. Children in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia continue to face the highest risk of death in the world and bear the brunt of this child mortality burden.
“If we are going to achieve the child mortality SDGs in all countries, we must redouble efforts to ensure access to effective and high-quality care along with the continued expansion of coverage of life-saving interventions,” the United Nations Children Fund’s (UNICEF) associate director on data and analytics, Mark Hereward said.
