Southern Madagascar is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with 1.5 million people—half the region’s population—needing immediate emergency food assistance, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today. Three straight years of drought have wiped out harvests and hampered people's access to food and COVID-19 is compounding their suffering. Those experiencing “crisis” or “emergency” hunger conditions—three times the number forecast mid-year—are mostly children and women. Of the ten hardest-hit southern districts, Amboasary is the epicenter; families barely scrape together enough food with raw mangoes and tamarind often their only food source. Mothers can no longer breastfeed and are forced to give their infants water which is in scarce supply. A WFP assessment in Amboasary last month found three out of four children had quit school - mostly to help their parents forage for food. (WFP, 30 Nov 2020)