A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs

As a result of the sanctions, the cost of one food calorie increased over 500fold. Praised by the UN itself, the rationing card created by the government stopped the famine by guaranteeing a minimum of foodstuffs to all Iraqi and foreign families living in the country, as well as powdered milk for babies and cleaning products. It was only in January 1999 that milk and cheese were reintroduced. Nevertheless, the rationing card offered little more than 2,000 calories per person per day, an insufficient amount, whereas before the embargo Iraq’s nutritional intake was 3,500 calories.

The sanctions did boost agricultural recovery and therefore ecological recovery too, due to the ban on importing fertilisers and pesticides. The countryside supplied the cities every day and there were never problems with the provision or hoarding even during the invasion of 2003. Contrary to popular belief, Iraq has fertile countryside between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which produces, according to Iraq’s Arab neighbours, the best fruit, and vegetables in the region, as well as dates. During the early years of the embargo, many families only ate dates, imaginatively prepared in a thousand ways.

In 1998 UNICEF warned that the nutritional state of children in Iraq was at levels like those in sub-Saharan Africa, which meant chronic famine. 58.1% of under 5 years was suffering from one of the three categories of malnutrition: «stunting» (low-height-for-age), indicating a state of chronic undernutrition, 26.7%; «wasting» (low-weight-for-height), indicating a state of acute undernutrition, 9.11%; and «underweight» (low-weight-for-age), which is a composite measure that reflects wasting, stunting or both, 22.8%;