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by Nick Perry Agence France-Presse NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) – Rising sea temperatures and overfishing threaten coral reefs in the western Indian Ocean with complete collapse in the next 50 years, according to a groundbreaking study of these marine ecosystems. The findings, published in the journal Nature Sustainability on Monday, warned that reefs along the eastern coast of Africa and island nations like Mauritius and Seychelles faced a high risk of extinction unless urgent action was […]
21 October 2021 More than one million people in southern Madagascar are struggling to get enough to eat, due to what could become the first famine caused by climate change, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). The region has been hit hard by successive years of severe drought, forcing families in rural communities to resort to desperate measures just to survive. Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, has a unique ecosystem which includes animals and plants found […]
by RIJASOLO Agence France-Presse Nothing to eat, nothing to plant. The last rain in Ifotaka fell in May, for two hours. Across Madagascar’s vast southern tip, drought has transformed fields into dust bowls. More than one million people face famine. Across tens of thousands of acres, the countryside is desolate. Harvest season begins in October, leaving long, lean weeks before the meagre crops come in. Some villages are abandoned. In others, people should be working […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Persistent drought in southern Madagascar has left hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine and stoked acute malnutrition among children, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned Thursday. Ministry of Health data revealed that 16.5 percent of children under five now suffer from acute malnutrition, almost double the proportion four months ago, the agency said. The Ambovombe district in the Indian Ocean island’s far south has […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Scientists have identified Earth’s smallest known reptile, warning at the same time that sustained destruction of forests in northern Madagascar threatens its survival. Tiny enough to perch comfortably on a fingertip, the ultra-compact chameleon — dubbed Brookesia nana — has the same proportions and world-weary expression as its larger cousins around the world. “We discovered it in the mountains of northern of Madagascar,” Frank […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations said Tuesday that $76 million was urgently needed to help over one million people in southern Madagascar facing potentially life-threating shortages of food, water and health assistance. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA issued its so-called flash appeal after the impoverished island country in eastern Africa saw its agricultural season ruined by the worst drought in a decade. At the same time, the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic […]
by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — More than 43 million hectares of forest — an area bigger than Germany — have been lost in a little over a decade in just a handful of deforestation hotspots, conservation organisation WWF said Wednesday. Swathes of forest continue to be flattened each year — mainly due to industrial-scale agriculture — as biodiversity-rich areas are cleared to create space for livestock and crops. Analysis by WWF […]
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Tuesday for emergency aid of $35 million to fight hunger in southern Madagascar, hit by the coronavirus pandemic and a third consecutive year of drought. “Some 1.35 million people are projected to be food insecure — 35 percent of the region’s population,” the WFP said in a statement. “With severe malnutrition rates continuing to spiral and many children forced to beg in […]
by Tsirisena MANJAKAHERY with AFP bureaux in Africa Agence France Presse No one can remember ever seeing as many people heading out of Antananarivo along national highway number 7. Madagascans have joined the exodus in their hundreds in recent days, forming long queues to get away after the authorities declared a lockdown to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. Richard Rakotoarisoa hit the road during the morning, surrounded by dozens of […]
MAROVOAY, Madagascar (AFP) – Gaëlle Borgia Muddy currents have submerged parts of the town of Marovoay in northwestern Madagascar, flooding homes, swirling rubbish around tree tops and killing dozens. A week of torrential rains have forced thousands to leave their homes, swept buildings away and cut off road links to the rest of the poor Indian Ocean island nation. All of Marovoay’s rice paddies have turned into swamps. “Everything has been swept away by the […]
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — At least 21 people have died in Madagascar following almost a week of torrential rains in the north-west of the island, the government said on Friday. The tropical Indian Ocean nation is in the midst of an intense six-month rainy season that often leads to casualties and widespread damage. Flooding in the districts of Mitsinjo and Maevatanana has claimed at least 21 lives since Sunday, and 20 more people are […]
by Tsiresena MANJAKAHERY ANTSIRANANA, Madagascar (AFP) — Frangeline is aged two but weighs no more than a four-month-old — the terrible result of her battle with measles, which is cutting a deadly swathe through Madagascar. Widespread malnutrition and low rates of immunisation on the Indian Ocean island have ramped up the killing power of the highly infectious virus. In the last six months, nearly 1,000 children have been killed by a resurgent disease that vaccination […]
