Malnutrition in pregnancy soars in Somalia and Ethiopia

The UN children’s agency, Unicef, says the number of pregnant women and girls who are suffering from malnutrition has soared by a quarter in the last two years in countries like Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.

Unicef estimates that more than a billion women and adolescent girls across the world are malnourished.

It is worried that recent crises including war and Covid 19 have made it increasingly hard for them to get the food they need.

It has urged the international community to make food security a priority, including supporting failing nutrition programmes.