Madagascar: More than 200,000 People Face Starvation

Exceptional drought destroys crops destroyed in southern Madagascar

Between 200,000 to 350,000 Malagasy suffer from hunger, reported AFP citing government figures.

The food has become scarce, and local officials have reported multiple cases of children dying from starvation, said the report.

The situation is currently being described as “famine,” as in 1991, when hundreds of people died of hunger in the region. “At the time, people left their villages to reach the water points and died on the way,” said an AFP reporter.

Head of  the Health center for one of the drought-stricken areas told the reporter that at least 16 children had died in two villages in December 2014.

“These children showed no signs of illness, they just lost weight progressively until death,” he said.

Meantime, flooding and landslides in the capital, Antananarivo, have killed dozens of people, leaving more than 63,000 others homeless, so far this year.