Due to the COVID pandemic, a lot of countries were affected in very negative ways in terms of their economy and also their relations. Some of the worst countries affected by the virus were in Africa. Specifically those countries who had already been struck by various disasters before the pandemic. One of the worst affected countries in Africa is the Republic of Madagascar. The people of Madagascar are going hungry and today in this blog, I am going to discuss why.
People living in the southern part of the country are in danger. More than 1.1 million of them are starving according to UN sources. Almost 500,000 children under the age of 5 are at risk of being malnourished. Due to this situation, a lot of people are trying to obtain food from the only plant that is abundantly available to them; cacti. This food, even though harmless, still holds almost zero nutritional value.
The first reason why Madagascar is going hungry is because of the rapid increase in climate change. Because of this increase, a lot has left most of Madagascar increasing in temperature thus decreasing the number of crops that can be grown in the country which then decreased the supply of food as a whole. Not only this, an increase in temperature has also led to a decrease in the water supply of the country leading them to drink dirty mud filled water increasing the risk of disease amongst the people.
The second reason why there is a lack of food is because of the COVID pandemic. Because there had been an outbreak of cases in Africa, people working for firms were getting asked to leave because firms were not getting work due to lockdown and social distancing. This then led to a decrease in the economy of Madagascar which lead to them not being able to trade with other nations. Madagascar was also reliant on the tourism sector as hikers and thrill seekers would come to climb the various hills and mountains. As travels were restricted the tourism sector also suffered and by this 1.5 million people were affected in the end leading to the increase
in the hunger problem in the country.
The final reason for the situation is bad governance. Because of unwanted regulations and not enough aid given by the government, most of the people of the country are poor. The government has not tried to help the citizens of the country in any way. In fact, it looks like the government is more concerned about their own money rather than the 25 million people they need to support.
To conclude, the people living in the southern part of Madagascar are currently in a state of peril due to the lack of food supply. It is due to this that the spread of starvation is increasing thus endangering the lives of many innocent, especially children. It is due to the COVID pandemic, climate change and bad governance that 1.5 million people are starving. This just goes to show how fragile and weak many governments around the world are.
Comments