United Nations, Nov 2 (Prensa Latina) The World Food Program (WFP) declared today that Madagascar is experiencing the first famine of climate change, with 1.3 million people in varying degrees due to serious food shortages.
Several consecutive droughts in the last five years, sand storms caused by soil erosion and deforestation of the last two to three decades have allied with the Covid-19 pandemic to create a perfect storm that prevents the country from growing and harvesting. harvests, said that UN body.
We have some phase five outbreaks of the Integrated Food Security Classification, which means famine-like conditions. This is basically the only, perhaps the first, climate change famine on earth, said WFP Madagascar Deputy Director Arduino Mangoni.
The number of people in phase three and above is now higher than in 2016 during the crisis that triggered the El Niño weather phenomenon, while forecasts for the next few months are very alarming, Mangoni said.
Unlike the other conflict famines in Yemen, South Sudan and Ethiopia, the crisis in Madagascar is likely the result of devastating climatic factors, the WFP official noted.
High prices, especially for food, including water, also exacerbate the situation, he added.
According to the WFP, an estimated 500,000 children under the age of five are malnourished, of which 110,000 will suffer severe malnutrition between now and April 2022.
To help those most in need, WFP expanded rationing and nutrition programs and plans to reach more than one million people in the emergency phase starting in December, the peak of the lean season, for which it requested 69 million of dollars.
msm / crc
