Where Is Mauritania?

Mauritania is a country in northwest Africa, it has a pretty dismal infant mortality rate of 68.07 deaths/1,000 live births – by comparison Canada has a 4.63 deaths/1,000 live births infant mortality rate. The infant mortality rate in Iraq is now being compared to one of those two countries, guess which one?

Infant mortality in Iraq soars as young pay the price for war

Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa.

A new report shows that in the years since 1990, Iraq has seen its child mortality rate soar by 125 per cent, the highest increase of any country in the world. Its rate of deaths of children under five now matches that of Mauritania.

Jeff MacAskey, head of health for the Save the Children charity, which published the report, said: “Iraq, Botswana and Zimbabwe all have different reasons for making the least amount of progress on child mortality. Whether it’s the impact of war, HIV/Aids or poverty the consequences are equally devastating. Yet other countries such as Malawi and Nepal have shown that despite conflict and poverty child mortality rates can be reversed.”

Figures collated by the charity show that in 1990 Iraq’s mortality rate for under-fives was 50 per 1,000 live births. In 2005 it was 125.

(emphasis mine)

Some more of that collateral damage ‘eh? Think about that statistic the next time the American idiot in chief, or one of his equally mentally defective Republican mouth pieces, starts talking about the “truly amazing” progress in Iraq.