It also said 83 unaccompanied children have been identified in the camps in Inhambane Province. Of these, only 5 had been reunited with their families. Relief items could then be transported by road from Maputo City to this point, and then forward distribution would be by air. This would allow for a more effective use of the available air resources. UN officials said that assessment teams travelling in the northeast Madagascar had found serious damage to the island's subsistence and cash crops, with rice fields submerged for over a week and coffee and bananas swept away.
Rice is the basic food for most of Madagascar's people.
If our assessments prove valid across the island, the loss of the rice crop could be devastating. It could mean serious malnutrition for hundreds of thousands of people. He said malnutrition would make people more vulnerable to illness, exacerbating serious health problems. And the loss of cash crops like bananas and coffee takes away people's livelihood at the same time. The floods here have created a spiral of disaster.