Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi lashed by high winds and torrential rains, leaving nearly 80 people dead
The death toll from a storm that struck three southern African countries has risen to 77 as emergency teams battled to repair damaged infrastructure and help tens of thousands of victims.
Tropical Storm Ana made landfall in Madagascar on Monday before ploughing into Mozambique and Malawi through the week, bringing torrential rains
Continue reading...Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique worst affected with 77 people reported dead and 80,000 more forced from their homes
Humanitarian agencies have mounted an emergency response across southern Africa this week as the death toll from tropical Storm Ana reached 77.
Officials reported that at least 41 people had been killed in Madagascar, 18 in Mozambique and 11 in Malawi. The EU’s aid agency Echo said on Thursday that at least 350,000 people have been affected across the three countries, including more than 80,000 displaced from their homes. Flooding has cut off roads and damaged power and water supplies.
Continue reading...Serge Gelle, the country’s secretary of state for police, reached land in the seaside town of Mahambo, having swum about 12 hours to shore after his helicopter crashed off Madagascar's north-east coast. 'It's not my time to die,' the 57-year-old said, lying exhausted in a deckchair in a video shared on social media
Continue reading...Police minister Serge Gelle was one of two survivors to make the marathon swim to shore after ejecting from the stricken helicopter
A Madagascan minister was one of two survivors to have swum about 12 hours to shore after their helicopter crashed off the island’s north-east coast, authorities said.
A search was continuing for two other passengers after Monday’s crash, the cause of which was not immediately clear, police and port authorities said.
Continue reading...A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Pakistan to Poland
Continue reading...People eating termites and clay as UN says acute malnutrition has almost doubled this year in south
Madagascar’s worst drought in 40 years has left more than a million people facing a year of desperate food shortages.
The south of the island will produce less than half its usual harvest in the coming months because of low rains, prolonging a hunger crisis already affecting half the Grand Sud area’s population, the UN estimates.
Continue reading...Male nano-chameleon, named Brookesia nana, has body only 13.5mm long
Scientists say they have discovered a sunflower-seed-sized subspecies of chameleon that may well be the smallest reptile on Earth.
Two of the miniature lizards, one male and one female, were discovered by a German-Madagascan expedition team in northern Madagascar.
Continue reading...Indian Ocean island purchases archive found in UK attic relating to life of Queen Ranavalona III
An archive of fashion, photographs and letters telling the remarkable story of the last queen of Madagascar will return home after it was bought at auction by the island’s government.
The jumble of ephemera, along with an ornate 19th-century dress, all relates to the life of Queen Ranavalona III, who was dethroned by the French and exiled to Algiers.
Continue reading...Auctioneer pieces together poignant tale of Ranavalona III from satin court dress and box of mementos
It began with a fabulous 19th-century dress and a box of jumbled photographs cleared out of a Guildford attic before a move to the country. It has resulted in being able to tell the true, poignant story of Ranavalona III, the last queen of Madagascar.
Ranavalona’s remarkable life of can be revealed thanks to the auction this week of personal effects unearthed by a descendent of Clara Herbert, who worked for the Madagascan royal family from the 1890s to the 1920s.
Continue reading...Scientists find several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during expedition
Scientists have found an elusive chameleon species that was last spotted in Madagascar 100 years ago.
Researchers from Madagascar and Germany said on Friday they had discovered several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during an expedition to the north-west of the African island nation.
Continue reading...Climate emergency is fuelling drought, food poverty and disaster in the global south but humanitarian crises under-reported
The African continent is a “blind spot” for coverage of the humanitarian crises that are being fuelled by the climate emergency, according to a new analysis [pdf].
Madagascar’s chronic food crisis, where 2.6 million people were affected by drought in 2019, came top of the list of 10 of the most under-reported crises last year, Care International’s annual survey found.
Continue reading...Investigation finds thousands of children are scavenging in deadly conditions for mineral widely used by car and electronics firms
Children as young as five make up more than half the number of miners scavenging for mica in Madagascar, according to a leading child rights group.
A year-long investigation by Terre des Hommes Netherlands found that at least 11,000 children between the ages of five and 17 are employed in quarrying and processing the shimmery, heat-resistant mineral, which is used in everything from makeup to car paint and hugely prevalent in the automotive and electronics industry.
Continue reading...Fake networks in eight nations are connected to man allegedly behind disinformation empire
Facebook has taken down accounts linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin – the businessman allegedly behind Russia’s notorious troll factory – which were actively seeking to influence the domestic politics of a range of African countries.
The company said on Wednesday it had suspended three networks of “inauthentic” Russian accounts. The Facebook pages targeted eight countries across the continent: Madagascar, the Central African Republic (CAR), Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya.
Continue reading...Student, who fell from aircraft, had reportedly suffered severe reaction to prescribed drugs
Police in Madagascar are investigating whether a British student who died after falling from a light plane deliberately opened the doors after suffering a severe reaction to medication.
Alana Cutland, 19, who has been described by her family as a “bright, independent young woman”, fell from the two-door Cessna C168 on 25 July. She had been carrying out research in the remote area of Anjajavy on the island off Africa’s east coast.
Continue reading...British student died following her fall from airplane shortly after takeoff
A British student who died after falling from an airplane flying over Madagascar opened the door of the aircraft herself, according to local police.
Alana Cutland, who was described as a “bright, independent young woman”, was on a research trip on the island. Officers there told the BBC and the Sun newspaper she fell shortly after the Cessna C168 on which she was travelling took off.
Continue reading...Organisations from around the world are reforesting at an unprecedented rate
When Clare Dubois’s car skidded on an icy road in Stroud, Gloucestershire, a tree prevented her vehicle tumbling into a ravine. It was, she says, a sign. Humanity is nearing a precipice. Trees can stop us going over the edge.
This calling was so strong that Dubois, a business life coach, founded TreeSisters with a friend, Bernadette Ryder, to take on a daunting mission: to reforest the tropics within a decade.
Continue reading...Attempts to make Africa a zone of influence recall Soviet-era activity on the continent
In spring 2018 a group of foreigners flew to Madagascar. They had not come to see the island’s lemurs or wildlife. The visitors were undercover Russian political consultants. Their mission was to help Madagascar’s ruling president Hery Rajaonarimampianina – or “piano”, as they named him for reasons of brevity – to win re-election.
The plan did not work. Last November the incumbent president failed to make it into a run-off vote. Other Russian-supported candidates did badly. Late in the day Moscow threw its support behind the eventual winner, Andry Rajoelina, who has denied receiving any Russian assistance or money. But after six months on the ground the operatives who arrived on tourist visas went home with little to show for their efforts.
Continue reading...The latest World Health Organization report on measles epidemics shows that cases jumped by 50% last year. In one of the poorest and least connected countries in the world, Madagascar, nearly a thousand children are reported to have died after a measles outbreak in the countryside. The real figure is likely to be much higher, because of difficulties of reporting. An emergency programme of vaccination seems to have contained that epidemic for the moment but it is a reminder of how devastating the disease can be against unprepared populations. In the rich world, meanwhile, previously prepared populations are having their defences dismantled from the inside.
The discovery of ad campaigns against vaccination on Facebook that are carefully targeted at pregnant women is unusually worrying. It shows how the widespread availability of sophisticated advertising techniques is going to give considerable power to people who previously had no way of getting their message across to large numbers. In the most recent US campaigns against vaccination, 147 different advertisements have been used and some viewed more than 5m times. There is an arms race under way, whether we like it or not.
Continue reading...