United Nations Agencies on Thursday warned that about 840,000 people were suffering from “alarming levels” of food insecurity in southern Madagascar.
Patsy Nakell, the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, said that the climatic phenomenon El Nino, which had affected the major areas of Southern Africa, had worsened the drought situation in chronically arid areas of the Indian Ocean Island State.
“A third consecutive widespread crop failure and extremely low water availability urgently require additional resources to roll out an adequate response,” UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said in a joint statement.
“What I saw in the south of Madagascar earlier this month alarmed me; people living on the very brink have nothing but wild fruits to eat,” said Chris Nikoi of WFP.
“Almost half of all children in Madagascar are chronically malnourished or stunted,” said Leila Gharagozloo-Pakkala, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Over 90 percent equivalent to 24 million population of Madagascar’s live on less than 2 dollars a day.(dpa/NAN)