“We have several hotbeds or conditions similar to famine, this is, in fact, the only, possibly the first, famine due to climate change on earth,” said the deputy director UN World Food Program (WFP) in Madagascar Arduino Mangoni.
He noted that in the south of the island almost 500 thousand children aged 5 and over are starving. It is projected that 110,000 children will still face malnutrition by April 2022. And people have already exhausted their usual methods of survival, such as selling kitchen utensils.
“We have high prices, huge inflation, especially the prices for food and water. In addition, we are defenseless against the” dahalo “- the bandits who are destroying the territory,” he said.
WFP has requested $ 69 million to help residents of the state.
According to Mangoni, outbreaks of hunger have been recorded in other countries in the world, but they are associated with conflicts. In particular, people are starving in Yemen, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
“There are several acute events such as droughts over the past five years, a new phenomenon – sandstorms, likely caused by soil erosion and deforestation over the past 20-30 years, and, of course, the consequences of COVID-19,” Mangoni added.
– .
