By Abdul Kimera
In the amnesty report of October 2021 that was released on Wednesday, Madagascar was among the countries greatly affected by prolonged drought.
The East African country has experienced four consecutive droughts, which is the worst in the century wiping out harvests exposing more than one million people in the South to hunger, malnutrition, and death.
This report identified as “It will be too late to help us once we are dead” also indicated that 90% of the population living below the poverty line which clearly shows the vulnerability of Madagascar to climate change.
According to Amnesty secretary-general Agnés Callamard, Madagascar is on the frontline of the climate crisis which could mean dying of starvation of at least one million people due to violations of life, food, water, and health rights.
“The international community must immediately provide the people of Madagascar with increased humanitarian relief and additional funding for the losses and damages suffered” she added
The strongest drought that started in November 2020 to early January caused a huge catastrophe in the southern part of the country causing a severe reduction in food production, deaths of livestock, and also the disappearance of people’s livelihoods.
Over one million people in deep south were facing high levels of food insecurity and nearly 14,000 were in great danger the highest so far on the scale of the World Food Program
As global leaders are set to meet for the climate conference later this month, wealthier countries are called upon to increase their financial contributions for human rights, consisted emission reduction, and also take bold action in cutting carbon emission levels.
