Thousands forced to leave home in search of food

Worsening drought has forced thousands of people in southern Madagascar to leave their homes in search of food and water, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. Some 600,000 people are now affected by drought in five districts in the south of the country. The UN food agency estimates that 30 percent of children in the most affected areas are showing signs of moderate to severe malnutrition. "About 80 percent of harvests have failed and people have sold their livestock and even their cooking utensils to raise money to buy food - and in extreme cases have migrated to other areas where survival is more certain," WFP said in a statement. WFP said although it had targeted 175,000 people for assistance, it was only able to provide aid to 55,000 of the most vulnerable due to the lack of funding. "We need a much better response from donors because, clearly, food needs do not go away if they are not addressed. Furthermore, we need to get food moving now before more people are forced to leave their homes, and before malnutrition rates start soaring in all districts, and before we're appealing to find a national emergency," WFP said. Traditional foods such as cactus fruit and reserves of cassava, sweet potato and maize have nearly all been consumed and WFP estimates that it will need an additional 8,000 mt of food. Earlier WFP spokeswoman Annemarie Isler told IRIN that a series of recent calamities, including the 2002 political crisis, had eroded people's coping mechanisms. Almost 40,000 people across the country are still affected by tropical storm Fari which made landfall in southern Madagascar on 29 January. "With only little over half of our appeal funded, it is difficult to imagine how we're going to cope with the rise in the number of people who need food assistance because of the drought. We've already used all of our in-country reserves and we've earmarked everything that's due to arrive in coming months, but it still won't be enough," WFP said.