Madagascar prays for rain
Half a million children are expected to be acutely malnourished in southern Madagascar.
JOEL KOUAM
Some days, all Tsimamorekm Aly eats is sugary water. He's happy if there's a handful of rice. But with six young kids and a wife to support, he often goes without.
This is the fourth year that drought has devastated Aly's home in southern Madagascar. Now more than one million people, or two out of five residents, of his Grand Sud region require emergency food aid in what the United Nations is calling a "climate change famine."
Climate change is battering the Indian Ocean Island and several UN agencies have warned in the past few months of a "climate change famine" here.
"The situation in the south of the country is really worrying," said Alice Rahmoun, a spokeswoman with the United Nations' World Food Programme in Madagascar. "I visited several districts and heard from families how the changing climate has driven them to hunger."
Rainfall patterns in Madagascar are growing more erratic they've been below average for nearly six years, said researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
"In some villages, the last proper rain was three years ago, in others, eight years ago or even 10 years ago," said Rahmoun. "Fields are bare, seeds do not sprout and there is no food."
Temperatures in southern Africa are rising at double the global rate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says. Cyclones, already more frequent in Madagascar than any other African country, are likely getting stronger as the earth warms, the US government says. -Nampa/Reuters
Some days, all Tsimamorekm Aly eats is sugary water. He's happy if there's a handful of rice. But with six young kids and a wife to support, he often goes without.
This is the fourth year that drought has devastated Aly's home in southern Madagascar. Now more than one million people, or two out of five residents, of his Grand Sud region require emergency food aid in what the United Nations is calling a "climate change famine."
Climate change is battering the Indian Ocean Island and several UN agencies have warned in the past few months of a "climate change famine" here.
"The situation in the south of the country is really worrying," said Alice Rahmoun, a spokeswoman with the United Nations' World Food Programme in Madagascar. "I visited several districts and heard from families how the changing climate has driven them to hunger."
Rainfall patterns in Madagascar are growing more erratic they've been below average for nearly six years, said researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
"In some villages, the last proper rain was three years ago, in others, eight years ago or even 10 years ago," said Rahmoun. "Fields are bare, seeds do not sprout and there is no food."
Temperatures in southern Africa are rising at double the global rate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says. Cyclones, already more frequent in Madagascar than any other African country, are likely getting stronger as the earth warms, the US government says. -Nampa/Reuters
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