With precious few trees left to slow the wind in this once fertile corner of southern Madagascar, red sand is blowing everywhere: onto fields, villages and roads, and into the eyes of children waiting for food aid parcels.
Four years of drought, the worst in decades, along with deforestation caused by people burning or cutting down trees to make charcoal or to open up land for farming, have transformed the area into a dust bowl.
"There are seven, so there wasn't enough food. The Plumpy wasn't enough for him," she said, holding Avoraza by his thin arm. "We used to call Madagascar the green island, but sadly now it is more of a red island," said Soja Lahimaro Tsimandilatse, governor of the southern Androy region.Sand begins to surround houses close to the town of Ambovombe, Androy region, Madagascar, February 15, 2022. Madagascar has always known extreme weather events, but scientists say these will likely increase as human-induced climate change pushes temperatures higher.
A study by international research collective World Weather Attribution said models indicated a small shift toward more droughts caused by climate change in southern Madagascar, but said natural variability was the main cause for the second one-in-135-year dry event since 1992. "When you look in the villages, you see children running left and right. That wasn't the case before," he said.
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