76 million is urgently needed to help over one million people in southern Madagascar facing potentially life-threatening shortages of food, water and health care, the UN said today. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA issued its so-called flash appeal after the impoverished island country saw its agricultural season dilapidated by the worst drought in a decade. “These compound crises have driven people to the brink of survival,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva. “One in three people in the south are now severely food insecure,” he said. More than 135,000 children under the age of five are now projected to be suffering from acute malnutrition in the south of the country in the coming months. Just a week ago, the UN’s World Food Programme appealed for $35 million in emergency aid to help fight hunger in the region. Laerke said Tuesday the flash appeal was meant to complement Madagascar’s own national response and was focused solely on “the most urgent life-saving and life-sustaining needs of communities in the Grand Sud during the peak of the lean season.”

Agencies.