Severe drought killing scores of people in southern Madagascar
Drought is killing up to ten people per day in one southern Madagascar municipality alone.
“The death varies from two to ten per day due to drought in our area,” Bernard Tolia, mayor of Anjapaly, told China’s Xinhua news.
“A dozen mayors from south including me alerted the government on Monday to look more closely the situation in our area,” he said.
“It has been almost a year that there was no rain. People have to travel 15 kilometers, often by feet, to find drinking water; livestock is suffering and die while cultivation is impossible due to drought.”
Adverse weather conditions are also affecting crop production elsewhere in southern Africa including southern Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi and South Africa, according to various relief agencies.
The negative impact of extreme weather events is threatening food security for an estimated 27.5 million people across the region, especially in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Botswana is experiencing “the worst drought conditions in 30 years with agricultural land badly hit by the lack of irrigation,” AFP reported the government as saying.
South Africa’s 2015 maize production decreased by a third compared with 2014 harvest, due to poor rains, GIEWS reported.
In Malawi, “2,833,212 people will not be able to meet their annual food requirement. In view of this I would like to appeal to all the development partners, other countries, and non-governmental organizations both in Malawi and elsewhere to complement government sources in assisting the food-insecure households,” said the president.
An estimated 1.5 million Zimbabweans (16% of rural households) will be unable to meet their food needs during the 2015/2016 hunger season, some 462,000 in the second quarter of the consumption year and 1,490,024 during the peak hunger season (from January-March, 2016). “This represents a rise of 160% compared to those facing food insecurity during the 2014/2015 hunger season,” according to UNOCHA, and UNRC.
Hunger Emergencies
The World Food Program (WFP) says it’s currently facing six emergencies simultaneously in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, Nepal and Ebola affected regions in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Iraq
The humanitarian situation in Iraq is deteriorating amid rising violence, with more than 3.2 million people fleeing their homes since January 2014, UNOCHA reports.
Humanitarian Disaster Stats
No. of people in need 8.6m
No. of internally displaced people 3.2m
No. of people who live outside camps 2.9m
No. of affected people in host communities 3.2m
No. of Syrian refugees 0.25m
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