15,000 die each day: UN

Despite a dramatic fall in the infant mortality rate, 15,000 children aged under five still die each day around the world from preventable diseases, a UN report said yesterday.

The report warned that because some African and South Asian countries are lagging behind in giving better treatment, more than 60 million young children will die between now and 2030 from illnesses that can be cured.

In 2016, an estimated 5.6 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday, said the UN Children's Fund (Unicef), the World Health Organisation and the World Bank in the report.

That marks a huge fall from 12.6 million deaths in 1990. But the agencies said the 15,000 under-five deaths each day is still "an intolerably high number".

Pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria top the list of child killers that can be prevented. But the report said malnutrition, which can leave children more vulnerable to severe diseases, played a role in half the deaths.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest infant mortality rate with an average 79 deaths for every 1,000 births in 2016. But India had the highest toll in numbers with more than 850,000 deaths while Nigeria came second at more than 450,000.

India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, China and Niger account for half the deaths.

A world summit in 2015 set a target date of 2030 to cut the number of deaths of under fives to less than 25 for every 1,000 births. It is now 41 per 1,000 having been cut from 93 in 1990.