A man was arrested on Sunday carrying an automatic weapon and three cartridges of ammunition to a church service attended by Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana, a security official said. Gendarmerie boss Augustin Randrianasolo told Reuters yesterday it was not clear whether the man had intended to attack Ravalomanana.

“We caught someone at the church with an automatic rifle and three cartridges of ammunition,” said Randrianasolo. “We found a taser stun gun on him afterwards.” Randrianasolo said the 53-year-old man was not immediately known to be a member of any group opposed to the government. “We don’t know what he was up to. We have opened an investigation,” he added.

Security has been stepped up in the Madagascan capital this week as ministers meet tomorrow from 50 countries of the Francophonie organisation, which groups French-speaking states. President Ravalomanana is deputy head of the Protestant church and recently drew criticism after his government banned a rival church over a dispute.

<B>Thousands face famine</B>

Thousands of children face severe malnutrition in southeastern Madagascar and 1,600 could soon die if they do not receive emergency food aid, a government official said yesterday. Emergency Council Secretary-General Jacki Randindrarison said the government had appealed for aid to avert a famine in the drought-prone Vangaindrano district and was rushing aid to the worst-affected villages.

“We did an assessment last week, 1,600 children are at immediate risk of dying from famine, thousands of others have malnutrition,” he said. On Friday, the United Nations’ coordination body for humanitarian affairs OCHA estimated that 14,000 children in the region were malnourished.

Randindrarison said flooding caused by two cyclones that ripped through the Indian Ocean island in February and March had destroyed crops, causing food shortages. “Normally the region is food insecure but flooding of crops this year made the situation worse,” he said. Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest nations, with three quarters of its 17 million people living on less than a dollar a day. Aid agencies say the island’s rates of child malnutrition are among the worst in Africa. Famine often strikes the island’s arid south-east.