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."



Türkiye Ousts 3 Elected Pro-Kurdish Mayors from Office and Replaces Them with State Officials

People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Ousts 3 Elected Pro-Kurdish Mayors from Office and Replaces Them with State Officials

People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)

Türkiye on Monday removed three elected pro-Kurdish mayors from office over terrorism-related charges and replaced them with state-appointed officials, the Interior Ministry said.

The move, which comes days after the arrest and ouster from office of a mayor from the country's main opposition party for his alleged links to a banned Kurdish armed group, is seen as a hardening of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government’s policies toward the opposition.

It also raises questions about the prospects of a tentative new peace effort to end a 40-year conflict between the group and the state that has led to tens of thousands of deaths.

The mayors of the mainly Kurdish-populated provincial capitals of Mardin and Batman, as well as the district mayor for Halfeti, in Sanliurfa province, were ousted from office over their past convictions or ongoing trials and investigations for links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

The mayors are members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, which is the third-largest party represented in Parliament. They were elected to office in local elections in March.

Last month, the leader of the far-right nationalist party that’s allied with Erdogan had raised the possibility that the PKK's imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization. His comments had sparked discussion and speculation about a potential peace effort.

Ozgur Ozel, the leader of Türkiye’s main opposition party, CHP, branded the mayors' removal from office as a “a coup” and accused Erdogan of seizing “municipalities” he could not win in the elections.

Politicians and members of Türkiye’s pro-Kurdish movement have frequently been targeted over alleged links to the PKK, which is considered a terror organization by Türkiye, the US and the European Union.

Legislators have been stripped of their parliamentary seats and mayors removed from office. Several lawmakers as well as thousands of party members have been jailed on terror-related charges since 2016.

“We will not step back from our struggle for democracy, peace and freedom,” Ahmet Turk, the ousted mayor of Mardin, wrote on the social platform X. “We will not allow the usurpation of the people’s will.”