Madagascar faces ‘catastrophic’ hunger after three cyclones

MANANJARY, Madagascar (AP) — Battered by three intense cyclones in the space of a year, southeast Madagascar is experiencing the knock-on effect of those climatic disasters: “catastrophic” hunger in remote, inaccessible areas that is gaining little international attention, humanitarian groups say.

Cyclone Batsirai hit in February 2022, followed two weeks later by Cyclone Emnati.

Then, Cyclone Freddy made landfall on the Indian Ocean island in February of this year.

The combined impact left 60%-90% of farming areas in the southeast badly damaged and food crops largely destroyed, according to a report by UNICEF and Madagascar's National Office for Nutrition.

The suffering is felt by people like Iavosoa, a desperate young mother whose 10-month-old daughter, Soaravo, was at risk of not living to see her first birthday because of acute malnutrition.

Iavosoa, who only gave her first name to protect her privacy, also has a 3-year-old son suffering from moderate malnutrition.

A team from the humanitarian organisation Doctors of the World brought her children and two other badly malnourished children, both under age 2, to a hospital in the city of Mananjary on Madagascar's east coast last month after a group of parents and their children were found walking through the bush to try to reach the nearest health centre.

More than a quarter of the population in the southeastern region of Madagascar, approximately 870,000 people, don't have enough food and are at risk of hunger, according to the Feb. 28 report by UNICEF and the National Office for Nutrition.

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