In Southern Madagascar, 'Nothing to Feed Our Children'

A view of a village in southern Madagascar's Ambovombe region, November 9, 2017. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Sally Hayden
A view of a village in southern Madagascar's Ambovombe region, November 9, 2017. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Sally Hayden
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In Southern Madagascar, 'Nothing to Feed Our Children'

A view of a village in southern Madagascar's Ambovombe region, November 9, 2017. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Sally Hayden
A view of a village in southern Madagascar's Ambovombe region, November 9, 2017. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Sally Hayden

"It´s the hunger that killed him," the grieving mother said.

In this village in Madagascar´s extreme south, the 31-year-old Lasinatry lost her 3-year-old boy in June as hunger swept the region, more severe than in recent years.

"We, the parents, have nothing to feed our children aside from tamarind and the cactus that we find around us," she said.

On a visit this week, The Associated Press spoke with suffering families who are among the 1.5 million people in need of emergency food assistance, according to the UN World Food Program. It's a consequence of three straight years of drought, along with historic neglect by the government of the remote region as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mothers are now trying to feed their children with unripe mangoes, and with tamarind mixed with clay. Many children have the spindly legs, reddish hair, and pot bellies of malnourishment. Tired, they rest under trees and no longer play.

After reports emerged of at least eight children dying, the president of this Indian Ocean island nation, Andry Rajoelina, visited the region and vowed to "win the war against malnutrition."

Some food has been distributed, but the WFP said it´s not enough and residents said the handouts last just a few days. The WFP said it has enough supplies to help just a half-million people through the end of this year

Southern Madagascar is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, the UN agency said, and three out of four children in the Amboasary district at the epicenter of the crisis have left school to help their parents find food.

Farmers said they can no longer cultivate because of lack of rain, and they have given up cattle farming because of theft. Some villagers said they have sold their most basic possessions - cooking pots, clothes, school notebooks - for food.

Some people now cut down trees to make charcoal, acknowledging that worsens the drought but saying they have no choice if they want to survive.

One mother, Toharano, said four of her 14 children died in June and July.

"Who can support not eating in the morning, midday and night?" she asked, exhausted by hunger and the heat. "The children wake in the night, hungry."

The names of the dead are kept in a notebook held by the village leader, Refanampy.

"We´re used to famine, but this time it´s just too much," he said. "Before this, we didn´t have people dying (of hunger) in our village."

The river Mandrare, which traverses the region, is now dry. Ten-year-old Masy Toasy walked in the direction of men who dug into the sand in search of water.

"It´s here that we tried to grow sweet potatoes, but they´re all dead," the girl said. On the other side of the river is her school, but she said her parents have sold her notebooks to buy a little rice.

"Residents have no more resources to allow them to face this crisis," said Theodore Mbainaissem with WFP, who said the extent of the hunger caught humanitarians and authorities by surprise.

And with COVID-19 and restrictions imposed to slow its spread, residents of this hungry region couldn't go elsewhere to find work, Mbainaissem said. Those restrictions have now been lifted.

"For now," he said, "the only solution is to aid them by bringing in enough food for the months to come."



China Releases 3 Americans it Imprisoned for Years, Beijing Says US Returned 4 People to China

The Chinese and United States flags are flown outside the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The Chinese and United States flags are flown outside the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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China Releases 3 Americans it Imprisoned for Years, Beijing Says US Returned 4 People to China

The Chinese and United States flags are flown outside the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The Chinese and United States flags are flown outside the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China arrived back in the United States late Wednesday. Their release, announced earlier by the White House, was the result of a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration.
The Chinese government also announced Thursday that the US had returned four people to China, including at least three Chinese citizens who it said had been held for “political purposes,” and a person who had been sought by Beijing for crimes and had been living in the United States. According to The Associated Press, it did not identify the four.
The three Americans released by Beijing are Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, all of whom had been designated by the US government as wrongfully detained by China. Swidan had been facing a death sentence on drug charges while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges.
A plane carrying the three men landed late Wednesday night at a military base in San Antonio, Texas.
Biden told reporters on Thursday morning that he has spoken to all of them and “I’m really happy they are home."
The release comes just two months after China freed David Lin, a Christian pastor from California who had spent nearly 20 years behind bars after being convicted of contract fraud.
US-China relations have been roiled for years over major disagreements between the world’s two largest economies on trade, human rights, the production of fentanyl precursors, security issues that include espionage and hacking, China’s aggressiveness toward Taiwan and its smaller neighbors in the South China Sea, and Beijing’s support for Russia’s military-industrial sector.
The release of Americans deemed wrongfully detained in China has been a top agenda item in each conversation between the US and China, and Wednesday’s development suggests a willingness by Beijing to engage with the outgoing Democratic administration before Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.
Trump took significant actions against China on trade and diplomacy during his first term. He has pledged to continue those policies in his second term, leading to unease among many who fear that an all-out trade war will greatly affect the international economy and could spur potential Chinese military action against Taiwan.
Still, the two countries have maintained a dialogue that has included a partial restoration of military-to-military contacts. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met this month to discuss potential improvements.
In a separate but related move, the State Department on Wednesday lowered its travel warning to China to “level two,” advising US citizens to “exercise increased caution” from the norm when traveling to the mainland. The alert had previously been at “level three,” telling Americans they should “reconsider travel” to China in part because of the “risk of wrongful detention” of Americans.
The new alert removes that wording but retains a warning that the Chinese government “arbitrarily enforces local laws, including exit bans on US citizens and citizens of other countries, without fair and transparent process under the law.”
The Biden administration had raised the cases of the detained Americans with China in multiple meetings over the past several years, including this month when Biden spoke to Xi on during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.
Politico was first to report the men’s release, which it said was part of a prisoner swap with the US. The White House did not immediately confirm that any Chinese citizens in American custody had been returned home.
However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning announced in Beijing on Thursday that “three Chinese citizens have returned to the motherland safe and sound."
“China always firmly opposes US suppression and persecution of Chinese nationals out of political purposes, and we will continue taking necessary measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals,” she said.
She added that a fourth person, “a fugitive who escaped to the US many years ago, has also been repatriated to China.”
The fourth person's nationality was not identified. Mao said “this shows that there will be no safe haven forever for criminals. The Chinese government will continue our efforts to repatriate the fugitives and recover criminals and illegal possessions until every fugitive is held accountable.”