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timeclimate crisis, Cut foreign aid and chronic poverty have driven Humanitarian crisis continues to escalate In southern Madagascar, the head of the country’s United Nations humanitarian operation issued a warning.
talking independentRija Rakotoson says Malnutrition and malaria are particular problems at the moment – adding that such worsening is always possible when less “serious” crises are no longer a priority. era of aid cuts.
“We are in a very worrying situation, with an escalating humanitarian crisis caused by multiple climate shocks and a funding situation that has been completely disrupted this year,” said Rako Toson, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Madagascar.
“Current funding pressures make it very difficult to get more funding unless you are in a severe humanitarian disaster, but the health and nutrition impacts we are seeing are still very significant and more funding is really needed [for it] be properly addressed,” he added.
Unlike the lush green of northern Madagascar, which is known for its Tropical rainforests and vanilla productionThe Great Southern region in the south of the country has a harsh, desert-like climate and is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The current crisis is thought to have started in 2021, when the region suffered its worst drought in 40 years, leaving thousands stranded. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)) – who compiled the five-point food security scale used by the United Nations – calls level five a “food disaster”.
Subsequently, the situation gradually began to improve, especially after heavy rainfall in 2024, but the situation changed in 2025. Drought persists from October to December 2024; severe flooding following multiple cyclones – esp. tropical cyclone dog and Storm Jude – March 2025; and a series of devastating locust outbreaks from February to May 2025 are all considered by OCHA to be key drivers of the current crisis.
The northern region of Madagascar regularly experiences tropical cyclones from the Indian Ocean, but the impact of these two events is particularly devastating because they rarely hit the south of the country with such intensity, OCHA’s Lacosson said. “We’ve been trying to adapt infrastructure and livelihoods to drought conditions rather than flood conditions, so no one was really prepared for what happened,” he said.
Data provided by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs show that during this year, humanitarian assistance to Madagascar also dropped by nearly 70% year-on-year. independentThe cuts were mainly due to US funding for the country being slashed from $78m (£58m) to less than $6m. About 15 local NGOs in Le Grand Sud have closed, Rakotoson said, while large NGOs have also significantly reduced their footprints, with US charity Catholic Relief Services closing several offices and laying off 300 staff.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs itself can no longer send staff from the capital Antananarivo to the south to coordinate the humanitarian response, and cannot launch a full global appeal to funders due to “very strict regulations,” Lakotson said.
“We’re definitely feeling the huge impact of the cuts,” he said. “It is also important to remember that Le Grand Sud is already the most deprived area in the country, with more than 80 per cent of people living below the poverty line and more than 75 per cent living more than 5 kilometers from a health centre.”
Impacts tracked by the United Nations on the ground include seven of Le Grand Sud’s 11 districts experiencing crisis level food insecurity (IPC 3), with 29,000 people at emergency level (IPC 4).
There are estimated to be approximately 558,000 children under the age of five severe malnutrition This year has increased by 56% compared to last year. This number includes approximately 155,600 people with severe acute malnutrition, which is characterized by extreme body weight loss, impaired vital organ function, and a very real risk of death.
a major malaria outbreak The situation has been ongoing since April 2025, further straining the region’s health infrastructure, with the southern region alone reporting 45,200 confirmed cases earlier this year, accounting for a quarter of the country’s total.
The climate crisis is a water crisis
Many of the impacts in the country are due to the fact that 14.3 million people in the country (about half of the population) do not have clean water near their homes, and less than half of schools or health centers have running water. The frequency of extreme weather events continues to increase— causing floods and droughts – further threatens already weak water infrastructure.
In the southern village of Ankilimiary, 70-year-old grandmother Tsalova spends a lot of money to buy water. If she cannot afford it, she must collect dirty water directly from the Taranti River.
“Sometimes when I have no money, I go to the Taranti River to fetch water. It’s too far there. Even if I leave in the morning, I might not be able to get home that day,” she said. “The road was very rough. The road was very rough; it was like a mountain. We were really struggling.”
Comments recorded during a recent fact-finding mission by NGO WaterAid have been shared exclusively with independentTsarova further explained that the predictable rainfall of previous years is no longer reliable and food shortages are common.
“During the dry season, we only eat cacti. When it doesn’t rain, there’s nothing else to eat,” she said. “We tried to plant corn, but it didn’t rain, so there was no fruit.”
WaterAid was already working in neighboring villages to install clean water infrastructure for Madagascar’s state-owned water company JIRAMA, but the program had to be significantly scaled back this year due to foreign aid cuts that abruptly cut around 40% of the NGO’s funding in the country.
Josette Vignon, WaterAid’s national director, said: “We had funding to improve the water supply in the area but unfortunately this program came to an abrupt end and we were supposed to be helping thousands of people but in the end there was nothing we could do.” independent.
Vignon went on to say there was a “huge gap” in what NGOs were currently able to offer people in the region. “Many communities have plans to improve water infrastructure but now just need funding to push them to conclusion,” she said.
This article is part of The Independent Rethinking global aid project
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