ASMARA, Dec 14 (AFP) - The level of malnutrition among children in Eritrea, currently standing at 16 percent, is the highest in Africa, United Nation Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in Asmara on Tuesday.
"Child and maternal malnutrition here is the highest in Africa," UNICEF representative in Eritrea, Christian Balslev-Olesen, said in Asmara during presentation of its annual report on the state of children in the world.
Reducing child malnutrition will be a complicated task, he said, adding: "We do not need just more rain and food aid, but a change in diets and in the agriculture."
Some two million children under the age of 14, represent the country's population of four million, according to government statistics.
Eritrean economy has been affected by recurring droughts and the aftermath of its 1998-2000 border with its southern and more large neighbour, Ethiopia.
The Horn of Africa country had already ruined its infrastructure when it fought a devastating independence war with Ethiopia between 1961 and 1991.
"Nearly 10 percent of children in Eritrea are orphans," said Balslev-Olesen, explaining that for UNICEF, an "orphan" is a child who has lost at least one parents.
"This is also the highest rate in Africa. Most have been orphaned by war and not by HIV/AIDS," he added.
"There is a rise in commercially sexually exploited children. We try and get them away from the streets but the increase is due to the poverty and the post-war situation," Balslev-Olesen pointed out.
Five percent of prostitutes in Eritrea are under the age of 18, according to UNICEF.
"If there is no new war, Eritrea is on track to achieve the health goals for children, which is not the case in the rest of Africa. There are effective immunisation campaigns here," he said.
Education for all is still a tougher challenge for Eritrea.
"In the early 1990s, net primary enrollment was 25 percent. Today, that figure is nearly 50 percent for boys but only 43 percent for girls," Balslev-Olesen said.
"It is not just a question of building more classrooms, there is a lack of teachers."
For next year, UNICEF has appealed for 13 million dollars, the same amount as in 2004.
"In 2003, UN agencies received 78 percent of the money they had asked for (160 million dollars), but the future is looking more difficult. Donors might put forward aid conditionality," a diplomat in Asmara said.
"They are not seeing, for example, the demobilisation of the army promised by the Eritrean government," added the diplomat, who requested to remain unnamed.
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