Fickle rains torture Madagascar’s drought-stricken south

TSIHOMBE, Madagascar: Like many people in Madagascar´s parched south, Ranotongae had been hoping for the heavens to open up and ease the country´s poorest rainy season in 35 years.

So when a few showers fell last month in Androy, one of the hardest-hit areas, the 44-year-old ran outside to plant cowpeas and sweet potatoes, scattering seeds and pushing vines into the moistened earth.

But the rains did not return - and the food has run out.

For the last three months, Ranotongae and her eight children have relied on one meal a day of maize and beans provided by a group of nuns.

The sisters started the feeding programme in February, after hearing that villagers were dying of starvation.  "I come here every day. This is the only thing we get to eat," Ranotongae said as she waited patiently with scores of other women and children to be called forward to receive the rations.

A third consecutive year of drought in one of the world´s poorest countries has left more than 1.1 million people unable to feed themselves in the semi-arid south of Madagascar, where cacti, sisal plantations and scrubland dominate the landscape.  The drought has all but dried up rivers.

During a rare downpour, villagers driving carts drawn by zebu cattle emerged on the region´s main road to fill jerrycans and drums with rainwater collected from the highway´s crater-sized potholes.