By RFIPosted on 16-10-2019Modified on 16-10-2019 at 11:20

According to the World Hunger Index, an annual report compiled by two NGOs, Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, the food crisis in Madagascar and Central Africa is very worrying. Chad is also one of the countries where the situation is alarming.

In Central Africa, the situation is so serious and for so long that half of the children under five are too small for their age. It is, again and again, in sub-Saharan Africa that undernourishment is the highest in the world : it affects 22% of children under five. It even went up after declining for a few years, regret the authors of the report of the Global Hunger Index . If this ranking sheds light on Africa.

Madagascar is also one of the five countries most affected by hunger. The South of the island, with its semi-arid climate, is increasingly confronted with the drought caused by climate change, Unicef ​​says in a report. A situation that worsens the food insecurity affecting nearly a million people in this area. In this huge area, difficult to access, the population has been forgotten by the authorities for years. Dinasoa Soajoro, a 28-year-old teacher, is also used to eating cactuses that stretch as far as the eye can see around villages: " During this period, we do not have enough money to buy food because the prices increase. So we eat cactus children and adults. But for babies, we give them some rice. Nearly half of all children under 5 are chronically malnourished in Madagascar.

Here we suffer a lot because the land is not arable. I try to grow peanuts, cassava, sweet potatoes and beans. But there is very little rain. Sometimes it's only once a year rain and it's starvation

Report of Laetitia Bezain in Tsihombe in southern Madagascar

16-10-2019 - By RFI

Some gray areas persist. Countries such as South Sudan and Eritrea, for which the information is only fragmented, are not included in this study. It can not be excluded, therefore, that their populations are among the most vulnerable.

► Read the Concern Worldwide report

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