Madagascar's southern region threatened by food crisis

One in three people in the southeast of Madagascar now suffer from severe food insecurity, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said.

Southern Madagascar is suffering from the worst drought in a decade and the resultant food crisis, worsened by the effects of coronavirus.

''In times of drought, one of the survival strategies is to send family members to work in the larger cities, but movement between regions has been prohibited for months of containment against the pandemic'', explains Jens Laerke spokesperson from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs sounding the alarm, says funds are desperatedly needed to address the situation: An "Emergency assistance" of nearly $76 million is needed to meet the needs of nearly 1 million people.

The funds, the agency says will help to complement the funds mobilized at the national level and will serve the most pressing needs of communities in the Deep South during the off-season, which is now beginning.

A recent study projects that 135,000 children under the age of 5 will suffer from acute malnutrition in the coming months in the Deep South if nothing is done in time.