Madagascar: The Threat of Starvation
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Madagascar is the second largest island nation in the world, yet quietly, largely unreported, its people are falling into starvation. 1.3 million are already suffering what’s called “severe food insecurity,” with the United Nations warning of worse to come. The World Food Programme says climate change is at the root of the problem, while others blame poverty and government mismanagement. Catherine Byaruhanga visited the stricken villages.
They are still finding dead bodies on the borderland between Poland and Belarus, a few of the thousands who tried to cross over, most of them originally from the Middle East. Poland was accused of breaking international law when it refused to let them in. and at least a dozen died from hypothermia while trapped between the two countries. Lucy Ash has found that the crisis also left some of the border guards themselves suffering psychological damage, from what proved to be a traumatic experience.
It is never great to lose an election, particularly if you happen to be in power at the time. However, the President of Honduras faces a more serious reversal of fortune than most politicians. Juan Orlando Hernandez was not actually on the ballot paper, but one of his political allies was, and he lost. This means not only will Mr Hernandez leave the Presidential Palace, he may also be extradited to the United States on drugs charges, as he no longer enjoys the protection of public office. Meanwhile the woman who won the election is promising a fresh start for the country, prompting wild celebrations, which Will Grant was there to see.
Keeping children safe from Covid has been a major challenge throughout the pandemic, but that does not just mean protecting them from the disease itself; relatively few get seriously ill from the Coronavirus. The question for many has been how to keep children's lives as normal as possible - continuing their education, and bringing them up in an era where parents are at home instead of going out to work, where people wear masks, and many are dying. Laura Trevelyan has three children who she’s raising in New York, and has been looking at the pandemic's effect on them and their fellow junior New Yorkers.
Plenty of people have pointless items stuck in an attic, or at the back of a cupboard, things they know deep down they will never use, and rarely even look at, yet somehow cannot throw away. Colin Freeman has spent the past couple of decades working as a foreign correspondent, and those years of roaming the globe have left him with some highly unusual keepsakes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:05.0 | Today, famine in Africa is not new, but are we about to see the first one caused by climate change in Madagascar? |
| 0:14.0 | We've heard before on this programme about refugees who were stuck between Belarus and Poland. |
| 0:20.0 | Today we hear what happened to some of the guards who turned them back. |
| 0:25.0 | Elections in Honduras have put a new president in par, and the old one is threatened with extradition to the US on drugs charges. |
| 0:33.0 | A correspondent in New York tells of the toll that Covid has taken on the city's children, including her own. |
| 0:41.0 | And a journalist souvenirs from years of covering conflict, our man presents his personal collection, everyone with a story. |
| 0:50.0 | Now, it's the second largest island nation in the world, and with wildlife not found anywhere else on Earth, yet Madagascar rarely touches our imagination, |
| 1:00.0 | save for giving its name to a rather successful animated film franchise. |
| 1:05.0 | And that's perhaps why, quietly, largely unreported, Madagascar's people are falling into starvation. |
| 1:13.0 | 1.3 million are already suffering what's called severe food insecurity with the United Nations warning of worst to come. |
| 1:22.0 | The World Food Programme says climate change is at the root of the problem, altered rainfall patterns causing crops to fail. |
| 1:30.0 | Others, however, blame poverty, people being too reliant on unreliable weather, having no financial backup if the rains fail. |
| 1:40.0 | Throw in allegations of government mismanagement, and it's easy to see how multiple factors may have played a role, as Catherine B. Arohanga has found. |
| 1:50.0 | The landscape tells you clearly what's happening in Madagascar's deep south. |
| 1:56.0 | Wide, pillowy clouds in a perfectly blue sky set starkly against a barren Earth with soil the colour of burnt orange. |
| 2:05.0 | Three years of droughts have taken their toll. There's very little growing in the ground here. |
| 2:11.0 | The only plants in abundance are desert species like cacti. |
| 2:16.0 | After a few hours of walking, my shoes are soon filled with sand, harsh winds and deforestation have turned the land into desert-like dunes. |
| 2:26.0 | It's a slow, cruel journey, as families battle fiercely to save themselves, but are eventually left defenseless. |
| 2:36.0 | Ranwasi is short and tough. Her hair has turned completely grey. After a lifetime of hard work, Ranwasi has little to show for it. |
| 2:47.0 | She sold most of her land to pay off debts and buy food. A small paddock that once kept cattle and goats is now empty. |
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