Understanding statistics accurately is crucial, as misinterpretations can significantly alter their meaning. On March 31, 2026, during an audio recording titled “Dix ans sans bilan, partie 4” broadcast by the online media outlet Be Africa, exiled Beninese opposition figure Martin Rodriguez asserted that in Benin, “more than 45% of children under 5 die from malnutrition.”
To lend credibility to his statement, Rodriguez claimed his data originated from the United Nations. He encouraged listeners to verify this, stating, “I read a United Nations report, two reports. There’s one on child mortality. It’s on the internet, everyone listening, type it on your phone, go to Google.” He then presented his figure for child mortality linked to malnutrition.
Context of the contentious claim
The Be Africa broadcast, “Dix ans sans bilan, partie 4,” emerged amidst the intense electoral campaign leading up to the presidential election on April 12, 2026. In the discussions aired on Be Africa’s channels, Martin Rodriguez, a businessman and vocal Beninese opposition leader living in exile, offered a scathing critique of Patrice Talon’s government over the preceding decade in Benin. He initially claimed, “We have seen an increase in poverty, poverty has grown,” before introducing his child mortality statistic. These allegations were part of a lengthy debate published two days earlier on Be Africa’s YouTube channel, preceding their appearance on Facebook.
Despite the reference to the United Nations, the assertion that “more than 45% of children under 5 die from malnutrition” in Benin is factually incorrect.
Online research reveals key distinctions
Following Martin Rodriguez’s recommendation, an initial internet search was conducted using keywords such as “malnutrition, mortality, children, 5 years, Benin.” A subsequent search specifically targeted his claim: “more than 45% of children under 5 die from malnutrition.”
These searches led to an advocacy brief published on the UNICEF-Benin website, dated April 30, 2020, and titled “Malnutrition: A risk factor for mortality and morbidity in children.” The statistics presented in this publication differed from those put forth by the Beninese opposition figure. It clearly stated that “Malnutrition constitutes the greatest risk factor for mortality and morbidity in young children in Benin,” and that “it represents 45 percent of all child deaths per year among children under 5.” This UNICEF statistic was also echoed in an article by the specialized website Allo Docteurs, published on November 18, 2024, and updated on June 25, 2025, which reported that “chronic malnutrition is responsible for 45% of deaths of children under 5 each year.”
UNICEF Benin clarifies and refutes Rodriguez’s statement
In the process of verifying these claims, UNICEF Benin’s representation was contacted. In an email on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, UNICEF Benin explicitly disavowed the figures attributed to it by Rodriguez.
Regarding the statement: “More than 45% of children under 5 die from malnutrition” in Benin, Dorothée Thiénot, Head of Communication for UNICEF-Benin, firmly refuted it, stating, “Phrased this way, this sentence is false and does not correspond to how the United Nations, including UNICEF, presents data.”
Beyond the fact that the claim does not align with the reality of UN statistics for Benin, Dorothée Thiénot highlighted a crucial nuance: “We are talking about the proportion of deaths of children under 5 where malnutrition is an underlying or aggravating factor, and not the proportion of all children who die from malnutrition.”
Thiénot was also questioned about the 2020 UNICEF Benin advocacy brief, which indicated that “malnutrition constitutes the greatest risk factor for mortality and morbidity in young children in Benin” and that “it represents 45 percent of all child deaths per year among children under 5.” He explained that “this formulation was based on the estimates available at the time, largely aligned with international analyses that attribute approximately 45% of deaths of children under 5 worldwide to undernutrition.”
In any case, the Head of Communication for UNICEF Benin emphasized, “it is not about saying that ‘45% of children die’” due to malnutrition before the age of 5 in Benin. “This is an erroneous interpretation,” Dorothée Thiénot stressed.
Concerning the current reality of child mortality in Benin, he further explained that “the available data is not presented as a ‘mortality rate specific to malnutrition’ for Benin, but rather as: an under-5 mortality rate (number of deaths per 1,000 live births).”
