While the world was in the clutches of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, children remained victim of intolerably high mortality rates and vastly unequal chances to live.

A United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) report released last week said East Africa had close to 190,000 deaths of children under five years of age, with Rwanda recording the lowest at 16,000 while Uganda was the highest in the region with 71,000 deaths of under-five.

Kenya recorded 62,000 deaths with South Sudan recording 38,000 deaths in children below five years.

In Infant and neonatal group, Rwanda still recorded the lowest deaths with 19,000, followed by South Sudan with 40,000 deaths in the same category of groups, Kenya had 77,000 while Uganda had the highest deaths in the age group with 85,000 deaths in 2021.

The report titled Levels and Trends in Child Mortality Estimates, reveals that about five million children under five died, with half of those, about 2.4 million, being newborns.

Fifth birthday

This loss of life could have been prevented. Of the five million deaths reported in children, 1.9 million died before reaching their fifth birthday with half of these deaths, 2.4 million among newborns.

“The first month of life is the most vulnerable period of child survival. Nearly half (47 per cent) of all under-five deaths in 2020 occurred during the first 28 days of life. This is an increase from 1990 (40 per cent), as the global level of under-five mortality declines faster than neonatal mortality.”

The study also estimates that for older children, adolescents and young adults aged five to 24 years, injuries (unintentional and intentional) become the more prominent cause of preventable mortality.

The probability of dying among adolescents aged 10 to 19 years was estimated at eight deaths per 1,000 children aged 10 years in 2020. Globally, about 43 per cent of the deaths among those aged five to 24 years occurred among adolescents.

It revealed that a child born in sub-Saharan Africa is 11 times more likely to die in the first month of life than one born in Australia and New Zealand from Communicable and infectious diseases as leading causes of under-five deaths. The under-five mortality rate in the 38 countries, according to the report, is classified as fragile and conflict-affected situations was 76 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2020.

In the region, South Sudan is far from attaining the goal of registering a five times neonatal mortality rate of 63 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2020.

Should this situation continue, then more than 43 million children younger than five will die before 2030, half of them newborns. But if the world is to address the substantial annual child death burden, it must target action and attention to the most vulnerable regions, countries and ages.