‘850,000 people in Madagascar face alarming hunger levels’

ROME: Nearly 850,000 people in droughthit southern Madagascar are experiencing “alarming” levels of hunger, and more aid is needed to prevent a dire situation from becoming a “catastrophe”, UN agencies said on Thursday. This is the latest warning by the agencies who have been scaling up their response to a crisis affecting more than half the population in the south of the island nation.

Some 20 per cent of households in the affected areas are now experiencing emergency levels of hunger, according to the latest food survey. “Emergency” is phase four of a five-point scale used by food agencies, where five is famine.

“What I saw in the south of Madagascar earlier this month alarmed me,” said Chris Nikoi, regional director of the World Food Programme. “These are people living on the very brink — many have nothing but wild fruits to eat. We must act together now to save lives,” he said in a statement.

Many households have resorted to begging, selling off their land or possessions, and eating vital seed stocks in order to survive, the UN agencies said.

Food stocks from the last harvest ran out in August and the next harvest is not due until March.

“The cost of inaction or further delaying our response is too ghastly to contemplate,” said David Phiri, subregional coordinator for Southern Africa at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

“If we do not step up our efforts now, this long hunger period will be extended by yet another year. This would be a catastrophe for a people who already appear to have virtually no food, no seeds and no discernible income,” he added.

Some 90 per cent of Madagascar’s population lives on less than $2 a day.

— Thomson Reuters Foundation