The famine hitting Madagascar is caused by man-made global warming, warned Aduino Mangoni, deputy director
of the World Food Program (WFP), adding that it was the first of its kind but not the last.
Nearly 30,000 people are now suffering from famine in the southern half of the island hit by a drought unprecedented for 40 years and more than 1.3 million suffer from acute malnutrition, said Aduino Mangoni by videoconference, during a briefing of the UN in Geneva.
“It’s a heartbreak”
For him, this is the first famine caused by global warming due to human activities. It is also “the only famine linked to climate change on Earth,” he insisted, stressing that those currently hitting Yemen, South Sudan and the Ethiopian region of Tigray are all caused by Conflicts.
“The situation is very worrying,” he said, describing children, “who have only skin on their bones” that he met in a nutrition center during a recent trip to the region. most affected. “It’s heartbreaking,” he added.
$ 69 million in aid needed
The next harvest can only take place in six months and the situation can only deteriorate by then, he warned, recalling that 500,000 children are already suffering from malnutrition, including 110,000 from severe or acute and are just a step away from death.
WFP needs $ 69 million to be able to put in place the necessary assistance over the next six months. In the southern tip of the island, 91% of the population lives in a situation of poverty and the drought has destroyed the agricultural and fishing production capacities on which families depend for their survival, a recent report by Amnesty International pointed out. .