Stunted growth

The United Nations warned Monday of a "deepening crisis" of malnutrition in the Middle East and North Africa affecting a third of children.

"At least 77 million - or 1 in 3 - children in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have some form of malnutrition," the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said in a statement.

Roya carefully spoon-feeds her daughter fortified milk in a ward for malnourished children, praying the tiny infant will avoid a condition that stalks one in ten young children in Afghanistan after decades of conflict.

The nine-month-old had been hospitalised three times already in remote Badakhshan province because her mother had trouble breastfeeding.