Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is responding to an alarming situation in southeast Madagascar, where our teams are seeing a rise in severe acute malnutrition in rural communities affected by last year’s back-to-back cyclones. The two storms ruined harvests and left a trail of destruction throughout the region. Most people here rely on crops like cloves, coffee, vanilla, and bananas for both food and income. “While communities in these areas already have very high rates of chronic malnutrition, the cyclones have tipped them over into an acute situation,” said Brian Willett, MSF head of mission in Madagascar. “Repeated climate shocks aggravate hardship for communities that have to build back every time.” As of early January, 2,072 children under the age of five were being treated for severe acute malnutrition. Our teams are preparing to care for more malnourished children over the coming months due to a continuing lack of food and the upcoming seasonal peak of malaria—a climate-sensitive disease that can also exacerbate malnutrition. Read more.