Vaccine coverage among children has declined in 112 countries and the percent of children vaccinated worldwide slipped 5 points to 81% – a low not seen since 2008.

There are 290 million child brides in the region, accounting for 45% of the global total, Unicef says.

A two-year drought has decimated crops and livestock across Horn of Africa nations, while the price of food imports has soared because of the war in Ukraine.

About 2.2 million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, one quarter of them aged under five, and most are at extreme risk from cholera, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

WHO estimates that up to 200,000 children die each year of the highly contagious infection, which is the leading cause globally of severe, dehydrating gastroenteritis in children under the age of five.

Since Boko Haram jihadists kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014, dozens of schools have been targeted in similar mass abductions.

In January and February, there were 17,338 measles cases reported worldwide, up from 9,665 in the same period last year.

At least over 10,000 minors are believed to have been killed or injured in the war that has raged since 2015.

Regeneron is only the third treatment for Covid to be recommended by the global health authority, which added it to its 'living WHO guideline' on drugs for Covid-19.

Schools in around 17 countries remain fully closed, while those in 39 countries remain partially closed.

A full 23 million children missed out on basic childhood vaccines last year.

The UN agency says the Covid-19 pandemic and mitigation efforts such as lockdowns have had negative effects on the mental health of many.