UNICEF Says Young Children Face Growing Death Risks in MENA

FILE PHOTO: Egyptian clown Ahmed Naser, performs to entertain and help children to put on face masks as a preventive measure amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Darb Al-Ban district at Islamic Cairo, Egypt April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Egyptian clown Ahmed Naser, performs to entertain and help children to put on face masks as a preventive measure amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Darb Al-Ban district at Islamic Cairo, Egypt April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
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UNICEF Says Young Children Face Growing Death Risks in MENA

FILE PHOTO: Egyptian clown Ahmed Naser, performs to entertain and help children to put on face masks as a preventive measure amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Darb Al-Ban district at Islamic Cairo, Egypt April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Egyptian clown Ahmed Naser, performs to entertain and help children to put on face masks as a preventive measure amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Darb Al-Ban district at Islamic Cairo, Egypt April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo

Tens of thousands more children younger than five could die in the next six months in the Middle East and North Africa because of the knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the UN agency for children said Monday.

Young children face growing risks because the virus disrupts their access to primary health care, including treatment for severe malnutrition, pneumonia and neonatal sepsis, Ted Chaiban, the regional director of UNICEF, told The Associated Press.

The agency’s estimates are based on a May study by Johns Hopkins University which looked at the indirect effects of the pandemic on maternal and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries.

UNICEF presented forecasts for 10 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, with a combined population of 41 million children under 5.

“If we continue to see populations not trusting the health system, not accessing the primary health care system, we could over the next six months see 51,000 more deaths of children under the age of 5, which represents a 40% increase on previous projections,” he said.

In a “best-case scenario,” an additional 11,000 young children would die in the next six months because of the knock-on effects of the pandemic.

Particularly worrisome is the situation in Yemen, Sudan and Djibouti where health care systems were fragile even before the pandemic, he said.

UNICEF and the World Health Organization called on governments in the region to resume immunization campaigns and nutrition services and ensure access to primary health care centers.



Trump, Harris Clash in Fiery Presidential Debate 

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) shakes hands with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) shakes hands with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Trump, Harris Clash in Fiery Presidential Debate 

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) shakes hands with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) shakes hands with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)

Kamala Harris savaged Donald Trump as "extreme" and the friend of dictators, while the Republican branded her a "Marxist" in a bitter televised debate Tuesday that poured fuel on an already explosive US presidential election.

On hot-button issues ranging from abortion and race to the fate of US democracy, the two held their first -- and possibly only -- debate ahead of the November 5 election, with each hoping for a breakthrough in an agonizingly close race.

Trump, who only a few weeks ago had believed himself to be cruising to victory, reacted to pressure from Harris by raising his voice and resorting to the kinds of colorful invective and often meandering insults that he uses at his rallies.

Harris, 59, responded by looking on in amusement, then clearly got under his skin, declaring that she represents a fresh start after the "mess" of the Trump presidency -- and saying: "We're not going back."

The ABC News debate began when the Democratic vice president unexpectedly approached the Republican former president to shake his hand, before they took to their lecterns in the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Then the niceties ended.

Within minutes, 78-year-old Trump called her a "Marxist" and also falsely claimed that she and President Joe Biden had allowed "millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums."

Harris pointed out that Trump is a convicted felon, called him "extreme" and said it is "a tragedy" that throughout his career he had used "race to divide the American people."

One of their most jarring exchanges was on Trump's unprecedented refusal to accept losing to Biden in the 2020 election, before trying to overturn the result.

In front of the audience expected to run into the tens of millions of voters, Trump doubled down, insisting there is "so much proof" that he really won.

Harris turned to Trump and said that his own former security officials in the White House have called him a "disgrace."

"World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump," she said.

Trump would "give up" Ukraine to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, "a dictator who would eat you for lunch," she charged. "Dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again."

Another intense exchange was on abortion.

Trump insisted that while having pushed for the end of the federal right to abortion, he wanted individual states to make their own policy.

Harris said he was telling a "bunch of lies" and called his policies "insulting to the women of America."

- Harris mocks Trump rallies -

The last presidential debate in June doomed Biden's reelection campaign, after he delivered a catastrophic performance against Trump. Harris took over as nominee amid Democratic fears that Biden was too old and infirm to defeat the scandal-plagued Republican.

Harris has earned a reputation in past debates and while serving as a US senator for ice-cold put-downs and tough questions.

Her five days of intensive preparation appeared to pay off against Trump, perhaps the most brutal public speaker in American politics.

Trump has long defied political gravity by seeming invulnerable to usual attacks.

He has been convicted of falsifying business records to cover up an affair with an adult film star, found liable for sexual abuse, and faces trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

But Harris clearly needled him on one of his favorite, if less serious topics -- his trademark rallies.

Attendees, she said, prompting an angry retort, were leaving early out of "exhaustion and boredom."

At another moment where Trump appeared to be losing his cool, he talked at length about a debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants have been eating local people's pets in Ohio.

"They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," he said before being corrected by the ABC News moderator that the authorities in the town of Springfield have said this did not happen.

With only 56 days left before the election, the intense spotlight was a rare opportunity for both candidates to shift the balance in what polls show is an almost evenly split contest.

And the debate was a key chance for Harris to introduce herself to more voters after only jumping into the race less than eight weeks ago, when 81-year-old Biden abruptly quit.