Worldwide, 155 million people suffer from hunger, Oxfam Novib writes in a statement new report. And one of the three biggest causes, next to conflict and the corona pandemic, is climate change. This leads to extreme drought and crop failure, especially in East Africa.
One of the worst hit countries is the island of Madagascar. There, 400,000 people are at risk of famine and more than a million people are now under-eating. Although the country has a history of protracted conflict, the serious food shortage is not now due to war; years of drought due to climate change is at the root of the problems.
No conflict, but hunger
Lola Castro of the UN World Food Program describes how dire the situation in the country: “The situation there is really dramatic,” said Castro, who recently visited the area, in a video on Twitter. “We’re seeing the impact of climate change in its worst form in Southern Madagascar. We’ve had five consecutive years of drought in this area.”
Madagascar is now the country that ranks highest worldwide on the scale of the IPC, an organization that analyzes countries where no conflict is going on but where there is food scarcity. Castro calls food shortage in Madagascar “the tip of the iceberg”. “Other countries are also going to feel the effects of climate change quickly. We are going to see this in Angola, in the north of Mozambique. We are going to see this phenomenon on a small scale first. And if we don’t do anything about it, then we will see it on a very large scale.” see,” she says to The Washington Post.
If nothing is done, the number of people in famine will rise to 500,000, David Beasley, of the World Food Program, told AP news agency. “People have been eating raw red cactus fruits, wild leaves and grasshoppers for months.” Beasley emphasizes that the country has contributed “nothing” to the climate change we are now seeing. “But now they are paying the highest price.”
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