Southern Madagascar drought leads to starvation; pandemic complicates aid May 26, 2021 catholic news service A woman is fed rations of food in Sihanamaro, Madagascar, during an emergency distribution of hot meals to the elderly and malnourished children in the drought-affected regions of southern Madagascar April 29, 2021. (Credit: CNS photo/Krystyna Kovalenko, courtesy World Food Program.) About 14,000 people in drought-ravaged southern Madagascar face starvation after exhausting all their options to cope, relief organization representatives said. CAPE TOWN, South Africa — About 14,000 people in drought-ravaged southern Madagascar face starvation after exhausting all their options to cope, relief organization representatives said. The utter silence of a room filled with young children “overwhelmed me,” said Arduino Mangoni, deputy country director of the U.N.’s World Food Program. He visited a center where severely malnourished people were being treated in the city of Ambovombe in January.