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."



The Seven States That Will Decide the US Presidency

Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)
Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)
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The Seven States That Will Decide the US Presidency

Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)
Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)

US Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are hurtling toward their November 5 election showdown, one of the closest contests in modern American history.

And in the handful of critical states framing the 2024 race, there is little daylight between the rivals with barely a week before Election Day.

Under the US Constitution, America's founding fathers established that each of the 50 states would hold its own vote for president.

Under the complex Electoral College system, each state has a certain number of "electors," based on population. Most states have a winner-take-all system that awards all electors to whoever wins the popular vote.

With candidates needing 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win, elections tend to be decided in the hotly contested "swing states" with a history of alternating between Republican and Democratic candidates.

This year, there are seven such battlegrounds, and every one is a toss-up within the margin of error. Here is a look:

- Pennsylvania (19 Electoral College votes) -

Pennsylvania was once reliably Democratic, but these days, they don't come much tighter than the Keystone State.

Republican Trump won the most populous battleground, with 13 million residents, by 0.7 percentage points in 2016. Joe Biden claimed it by 1.2 percentage points in 2020.

Known for its "Rust Belt" cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has been blighted for decades by the steady decline of its industrial manufacturing base.

Trump and Harris have campaigned repeatedly in the eastern state, where the pair held their one and only presidential debate. Trump, who survived an assassination attempt at a July rally in Pennsylvania, is courting the rural white population and warning that migrants are overwhelming small towns.

Harris is touting recent infrastructure wins, and in Pittsburgh she outlined plans to invest $100 billion in manufacturing, a key issue for state residents.

- Georgia (16) -

This southeastern state was an election flashpoint at the end of Trump's first term, and the controversy simmers.

Prosecutors in Georgia indicted Trump in an election interference case after he called state officials urging them to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's narrow 2020 victory.

But in a boost for Trump, the case is paused until after the election.

Biden was the first Democrat to win the Peach State since 1992. Demographic changes are likely to benefit Harris, who has courted minority voters across Georgia.

- North Carolina (16) -

The southeastern state has voted Democratic only once since 1980, but Harris believes it's back in play.

The population, now over 10 million, is expanding and growing more diverse, benefiting Democrats.

Complicating matters for Trump, a scandal involving the state's Republican gubernatorial candidate has infuriated party officials who worry it could sink Trump in a close race.

As in neighboring Georgia, one wild card is how the devastation from storm Helene, which recently laid waste to towns in western North Carolina, might impact the vote.

- Michigan (15) -

Trump flipped Michigan, a former Democratic stronghold, on his way to defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Biden returned it to the blue column in 2020, buoyed by unionized workers and a large Black community.

But this time, Harris risks losing the support of a 200,000-strong Arab-American community that has denounced Biden's -- and by extension her -- handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

- Arizona (11) -

The Grand Canyon state was among 2020's tightest races, with Biden triumphing by just 10,457 votes.

Trump hopes frustrations over the Biden-Harris administration's immigration policy will swing Arizona, which shares a border with Mexico, back in his favor.

Harris visited Arizona's border in September vowing to crack down on migration and work on reviving last year's bipartisan border bill, which she said Trump "tanked" for political purposes.

- Wisconsin (10) -

Clinton lost Wisconsin after giving the state a wide berth during the 2016 campaign.

As with Midwestern neighbor Michigan, it was a different story when Trump's opponent was Biden, who turned a 23,000-vote deficit into a winning margin of 21,000 for Democrats.

Trump considers it winnable, and his party held its summer national convention there.

While Trump led early against Biden, Harris has made the state race a nailbiter.

- Nevada (6) -

The Silver State, with a population of 3.1 million, hasn't voted Republican since 2004. Conservatives, buoyed by Trump's headway with Hispanic voters, are convinced they can flip the script.

Trump held a significant lead here against Biden.

But within weeks of becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris -- promoting her economic plans to help small businesses and combat inflation -- has erased that advantage in the western state, whose largest city Las Vegas is dominated by the hospitality industry.