No fewer than 800,000 Nigerian children die before they clocked five
years, according to a new report.
The recent study rated Nigeria to have the highest number of
under-five child mortality among low and middle-income countries, as
about 789,037 children die before their fifth birthday.
The report published by the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of
Medicine, looked at countries where more than 90 percent of child
deaths occurred in 2017.
The study, which also revealed that about 15, 000 children die every
day worldwide, showed that despite progress made in achieving the
United Nations’ target for child survival by countries, about 789, 037
children died before age five in 2017 as compared to 1,011,620 deaths
in 2000.
The study showed that the likelihood of a child reaching age five
varies nearly four-fold among local government areas in Nigeria, with
the highest mortality rate in 2017 in Garki, Abuja (195.1:1000 live)
and the lowest in Egor, Nasarawa state (52.0:1000).
