Malnutrition: The devastating effects of hunger

According to a report published yesterday by the humanitarian organization Save the Children, nearly 500 million children worldwide might, in the next fifteen years, grow up with physical and mental after-effects because they do not have sufficient food to eat.

One in six children leaves school to help his family to work in order to be able to buy food.

The study focuses on five countries: India, Bangladesh, Peru, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The report notes that 300 children die every hour in the world, which means 2.6 million deaths a year due to malnutrition. Hunger, however, has decreased globally over the past two years, except in five African countries and in North Korea.

"In Niger, because of malnutrition, infants aged thirty months are 8 cm shorter than the average for Western countries," Jasmine Whitbread, president of Save the Children, said.