Kere (famine)

The Kere (also Kéré; from the Antandroy dialect of Malagasy, literally meaning 'starved to death'^[1]) is a recurrent famine that has occurred in Madagascar's Deep South region since the 1930s.^[1] The average gap between Kere events is two years.^[1] The famine, affecting a region of approximately 50,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi) from the Mandrare River to the Onilahy River, kills thousands of people per year and contributes to the severe poverty of the region—97% of the territory of the Kere are classified as "very poor" by Madagascar's Institut National de la Statistique [fr].^[1] Though aid and interventions aimed at alleviating the Kere have taken place for decades, the famine has been resistant and is worsening. In the Kere zone, whose residents are called o'ndaty, non-Kere periods are called anjagne ('good' or 'peacetime').^[1]